Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising platform for Democratic organizations, collected this amount over just two days, according to Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project who maintains a live tracker. While this tally is unofficial, it reflects the fundraising activities leading up to mandatory financial disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous record for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump participated in their first presidential debate.
As a result of the surge in contributions, ActBlue has now raised a total of $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising counterpart launched in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion.
ActBlue commented on the influx of new donors, stating, “We’ve seen so many folks saying 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 major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which formed a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported having raised over $160,000 in just one day.
Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign, stating it would be “very well financed” and offered his support. Major Democratic donors George and Alex Soros are also backing Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising spikes after being defeated by Trump in a televised debate on June 27, raising about $28 million in the following days. In the aftermath of Trump being convicted on 34 felony charges, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliated groups brought in $69 million over the same period, causing temporary disruptions to Trump’s campaign website. His super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million during that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump groups received $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden reported having $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.