Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats generated $100 million from donors using their primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project, ActBlue, a political action committee dedicated to Democratic fundraising, reported this significant sum over the past two days. Although the tally is unofficial and derived from ActBlue’s comprehensive tracker of donations since 2004, it offers insights into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of mandatory disclosures.
On Sunday, donors contributed $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking a record day for fundraising in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The second most successful fundraising day recently was on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Following the surge in donations on Sunday, ActBlue celebrated reaching $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, its Republican counterpart established in late 2019, has accumulated approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue stated on X, previously Twitter, that many individuals reported making their first-ever donation within the last 24 hours, expressing excitement over the influx of new small-dollar contributors joining the grassroots movement.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reported securing $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris. Additionally, Swing Left, which initiated support for the eventual Democratic nominee, raised more than $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, indicated that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her candidacy. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also pledged their support to Harris.
Historically, Biden’s most successful fundraising days occurred immediately after a televised debate defeat against Donald Trump on June 27, during which he raised about $28 million in just over 24 hours. Following Trump’s recent conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, whereas Trump and affiliated groups collected $69 million from May 30 to May 31, which temporarily caused a crash on Trump’s campaign website. Trump’s aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump entities secured $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.