Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, the political action committee and fundraising platform for Democratic organizations, reported this amount accumulated over the past two days, as tracked by Ryan Murphy, a developer with The Marshall Project. While this figure is not formally confirmed—it is sourced from ActBlue’s extensive fundraising tracker initiated in 2004—it offers an early insight into the group’s fundraising achievements prior to any public disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions reached $66.9 million following the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the most lucrative fundraising day of the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The second-highest day in recent memory occurred on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump participated in their first presidential debate.
This influx of donations helped ActBlue reach a total of $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, its Republican counterpart established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion.
ActBlue noted on social media that they have witnessed an impressive number of first-time donors making contributions in the last 24 hours, expressing excitement about the influx of small-dollar donations supporting the grassroots movement.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and subsequent endorsement of Harris, according to Politico. Moreover, Swing Left, which recently launched a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same time frame.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and confirmed his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also endorsed Harris.
Historically, Biden’s most successful fundraising days occurred after a significant debate loss to Trump on June 27. Biden raised about $28 million in the days following that event. Additionally, he mobilized $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. During that same period, Trump and his aligned organizations collected $69 million from May 30 to May 31, leading to a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. An affiliated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups garnered $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in his campaign coffers compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.