Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform. ActBlue, a political action committee dedicated to supporting Democratic initiatives, recorded this impressive amount over a two-day period, as indicated by a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. Although the figures are not officially verified—being based on ActBlue’s own comprehensive tracking system since its inception in 2004—they offer a snapshot of the group’s fundraising momentum ahead of obligatory financial disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors provided $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest fundraising day for ActBlue in the current election cycle. Murphy’s tracker notes that the second-highest donation day in recent memory occurred on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the influx of donations on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its establishment two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, its Republican counterpart that began operations in late 2019, has collected approximately $4.3 billion, per OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm about the recent surge, indicating a strong influx of first-time donors. “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!” they stated on social media platform X.
Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, reportedly received $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Additionally, Swing Left, which has initiated a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 in just 24 hours.
Roger Altman, the founder of Evercore, remarked on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and confirmed his support. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also expressed their backing for Harris.
In prior instances, Biden’s most successful fundraising days occurred immediately following a robust debate performance against former President Donald Trump on June 27, raising around $28 million in the days following. Biden also garnered $19.2 million shortly after Trump was convicted on multiple felony counts, while Trump and his affiliates raised $69 million from May 30 to May 31, leading to brief disruptions on his campaign website due to the sudden spike in donor activity. Additionally, a super PAC aligned with Trump raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations amassed $332.4 million, while their pro-Trump counterparts brought in $431.2 million. As of the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.