Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from donors via its primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, the political action committee ActBlue reported this impressive sum over a span of just two days. While the tally is not official and utilizes data from ActBlue’s donation tracker dating back to 2004, it offers a glimpse into the group’s financial activity ahead of required public disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donations reached $66.9 million for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single day of fundraising for the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. For context, the second-largest day of fundraising in recent history occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
As a result of the fundraising boost over the weekend, ActBlue achieved a milestone of $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican counterpart that started in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion.
ActBlue noted on X, formerly Twitter, that many individuals mentioned making their first donation in the past 24 hours, expressing motivation from the grassroots movement.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reported securing $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. The group Swing Left, which initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, stated it raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed his belief that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and confirmed his support for her. Notable Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising days following a notable debate loss against Trump on June 27, where Biden and his committees raised about $28 million. In the wake of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his associated groups managed to bring in $69 million in a single day around that event. Trump’s campaign website temporarily crashed due to the influx of donations. During that month, an aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million, resulting in Biden holding $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million by the end of June.