Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising tool for Democratic organizations, reported this impressive sum over the weekend, as noted by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While the figure is unofficial and derived from ActBlue’s extensive tracker of donations since 2004, it gives insight into the fundraising performance ahead of formal disclosures.
On Sunday alone, a remarkable $66.9 million was donated for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest fundraising day in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The previous significant day for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced off in the first presidential debate.
The recent surge in Sunday donations helped ActBlue reach a notable milestone of $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising counterpart established in late 2019, has accumulated approximately $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm about the influx of new supporters, stating, “We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first-ever donation in the last 24 hours! It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
Moreover, Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and Harris’s endorsement. Additionally, Swing Left, which supports the ultimate Democratic nominee, announced it raised over $160,000 within one day.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign is set to be “very well financed,” and also confirmed his support for her. Democratic mega-donors George and Alex Soros are also backing Harris in her campaign.
Historically, Biden’s strongest fundraising spikes occurred after he experienced a defeat against Donald Trump during a debate on June 27. He and his committees raised approximately $28 million in the subsequent days. In comparison, after Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts, Biden garnered $19.2 million, while Trump’s associated groups raised $69 million in the days following his conviction on May 30. The surge of donations temporarily crashed Trump’s campaign website, and the super PAC aligned with him, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups accumulated $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 in available funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.