Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats raised $100 million through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, the political action committee for Democratic fundraising, recorded this amount over the past two days, according to a live tracker by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While this figure is unofficial and based on ActBlue’s own comprehensive tracking since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising efforts ahead of required disclosures.
On Sunday, donations poured in, contributing $66.9 million to launch Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
As a result of the spike in contributions on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in funds raised since its inception two decades ago. Its Republican counterpart, WinRed, established in late 2019, has collected approximately $4.3 billion in donations.
ActBlue expressed excitement in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, noting many individuals made their first-ever donations in the last 24 hours, highlighting the boost in grassroots support for the movement.
In the wake of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, the Biden-aligned super PAC Future Forward secured $150 million from major donors within just 24 hours. Additionally, the group Swing Left reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe to support the future Democratic nominee.
Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed confidence in the financing of Harris’s campaign and pledged his support. Notably, Democratic benefactors George and Alex Soros have also shown their support for Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising immediately following a televised debate loss to Trump on June 27, during which his committees raised about $28 million within a day. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million in the subsequent days, while Trump and his associated groups garnered $69 million from May 30 to May 31, leading to a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. The aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that same month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.