Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee dedicated to Democratic fundraising, reported this figure over the last two days, using a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. While the count is unofficial and based on ActBlue’s own comprehensive tracking of donations since 2004, it offers insights into the organization’s fundraising ahead of the necessary disclosures due in weeks.
On Sunday alone, donors provided $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for daily donations was set on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump first debated.
This boost in donations allowed ActBlue to reach $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, its Republican counterpart that started in late 2019, has gathered approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed excitement on Monday, noting many donors mentioned making their first contributions in the past 24 hours. “It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!” the organization stated on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC supportive of Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day of Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Swing Left, which has initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, indicated to Agence France-Presse that it raised over $160,000 in the same time frame.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, praised Harris’s campaign on Monday, asserting it would be “very well financed” and reaffirmed his support. Notable Democratic benefactors like George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s strongest fundraising days often followed significant events. For instance, after being defeated by Trump in a televised debate on June 27, Biden and his committees raised approximately $28 million shortly afterward. He also raised $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, as Trump and his affiliated groups attracted $69 million from May 30 to May 31, causing a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. The super PAC aligned with Trump, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that same month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups collected $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump entities amassed $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in his campaign coffers, while Trump had $336.2 million.