Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic groups, reported this figure over the past two days, according to a tracking system created by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While this total is unofficial and based on ActBlue’s own tracking since its inception in 2004, it offers insights into the fundraising achievements ahead of the required official disclosures.
On Sunday, donors contributed $66.9 million to Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, representing the largest fundraising day for the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The previous highest single-day total occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Thanks to the significant influx of donations on Sunday, ActBlue reached a milestone of $14 billion raised since its launch two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that started in late 2019, has accumulated around $4.3 billion, as reported by OpenSecrets.
ActBlue stated on X, formerly known as Twitter, that many donors mentioned they made their first-ever contributions in the last 24 hours. “It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!” they noted.
In the wake of Biden’s announcement and subsequent endorsement of Harris, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reported receiving $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours. Additionally, Swing Left, which has initiated a fund to support the future Democratic nominee, announced it raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and confirmed his support. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown backing for Harris.
Biden previously had significant fundraising success following a debate loss against Donald Trump on June 27, where he raised about $28 million in the subsequent days. He also secured $19.2 million in the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his affiliates raised $69 million following his conviction on May 30, which even led to a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. An allied super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., brought in $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump entities raised $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.