Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million from donors using their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising platform for Democratic organizations, recorded this impressive amount over the past two days, as per a live tracker developed by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. Although the figure is not official and relies on ActBlue’s self-maintained mega-tracker since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of the required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the most significant fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous peak for donations was on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
This surge of donations also helped ActBlue reach a milestone of $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican counterpart which started in late 2019, has gathered about $4.3 billion in donations, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed excitement over the influx of contributions, stating, “We’ve seen many people say they made their first-ever donation in the last 24 hours! It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from significant donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, according to Politico. Swing Left reported raising over $160,000 in just 24 hours to support the eventual Democratic nominee.
Evercore founder Roger Altman indicated on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and publicly pledged his support. Prominent Democratic donors, George and Alex Soros, have also shown their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden’s most successful fundraising periods occurred immediately following his defeats by former President Donald Trump during a televised debate on June 27, where his committees raised approximately $28 million in just a day. Biden also raised $19.2 million soon after Trump was charged with 34 felony counts. In the same timeframe, Trump and his affiliates raised $69 million within two days following his conviction on May 30. This surge led to a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website, while the related super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, as detailed by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million ready, just short of Trump’s $336.2 million.