Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats raised an impressive $100 million through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic initiatives, reported this amount over the past two days, as tracked by developer Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although this number is unofficial and tallies donations since 2004, it offers insight into fundraising progress ahead of upcoming official disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to launch Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single-day fundraising event for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. This was only surpassed by donations made during the presidential debate between Biden and Trump on September 30, 2020.
As a result of the surge on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican counterpart established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion to date.
ActBlue stated on social media that many individuals reported making their first-ever donation in the previous 24 hours, reflecting the excitement of new small-dollar contributors joining the grassroots movement.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which set up a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, also announced it raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence on Monday in Harris’s campaign financing and pledged his support. Notably, Democratic mega-donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Biden’s earlier significant fundraising moments followed his debates against former President Trump, including raising about $28 million in the wake of a televised debate defeat on June 27. Biden continued to raise funds, securing $19.2 million after Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts. During that time, Trump and associated groups amassed $69 million, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website, while the super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, groups supporting Biden collected $332.4 million, while those supporting Trump garnered $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.