Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, the political action committee facilitating donations for Democratic groups, reported this figure over a two-day period, according to a live tracker developed by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. While this total is not formally verified, as it derives from ActBlue’s own extensive tracking since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising efforts ahead of mandatory disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions reached $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the largest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous record for the second-biggest fundraising day occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With this surge in donations, ActBlue reported it has raised a total of $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that started in late 2019, has amassed around $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue highlighted the influx of first-time donors in its statement on social media, expressing excitement about the grassroots support.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC affiliated with Biden, received $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which has initiated a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same 24 hours.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed,” expressing his support, while notable Democratic donors like George and Alex Soros have also endorsed her.
Previously, Biden saw significant fundraising after being defeated by Trump during a televised debate on June 27, which resulted in approximately $28 million raised over the following days. Biden also collected $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million in the days surrounding his conviction on May 30, which briefly overwhelmed his campaign website. In that month, the super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, compared to $431.2 million for pro-Trump groups. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available, while Trump had $336.2 million.