Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from donors through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that facilitates fundraising for Democratic groups, reported this figure over the past two days via a tracker managed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While this tally is unofficial and based on ActBlue’s long-term donation metrics since 2004, it offers insight into the fundraising activity ahead of formal disclosures.
On Sunday alone, $66.9 million was contributed to launch Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, making it the largest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. This surpasses the previous high, which occurred on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced off in their first presidential debate.
The rush of donations on Sunday also enabled ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform, has amassed approximately $4.3 billion since its launch in late 2019.
ActBlue commented on social media that many people reported making their first political donations in the last 24 hours, highlighting the growing involvement of new small-dollar donors in the grassroots movement.
Following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in commitments from major donors within one day. Additionally, Swing Left, which has created a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, noted on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and expressed his support. Prominent Democratic philanthropists George and Alex Soros have also voiced their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising spikes after being outperformed by Trump in a televised debate. Following that debate on June 27, Biden raised about $28 million over the subsequent day. Additionally, he raised $19.2 million after Trump’s indictment on felony charges. During that same period, Trump’s campaign and affiliated groups generated $69 million, leading to a brief crash of his campaign website.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups brought in $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.