Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million from contributors via its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee dedicated to fundraising for Democratic organizations, reported this amount over the last two days using a live tracker established by Ryan Murphy, a developer with The Marshall Project. While the total isn’t official as it comes from ActBlue’s comprehensive donation tracker since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising activities ahead of formal disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions totaled $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the most successful fundraising day of the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. This surpassed the previous high, set on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Due to the influx of donations on Sunday, ActBlue reached $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican equivalent established in late 2019, has gathered approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue reported a surge in first-time donations, expressing excitement about new small-dollar contributors joining the grassroots movement on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Swing Left, a fund supporting the Democratic nominee, revealed it raised over $160,000 within the same 24 hours.
Evercore founder Roger Altman announced on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and expressed his backing. Notable Democratic mega-donors George and Alex Soros have also shown support for Harris.
Previously, Biden saw substantial fundraising results following his June debate loss to Trump, raking in about $28 million in the days following that event. He also garnered $19.2 million after Trump’s conviction on multiple felony counts. In contrast, Trump and his supporting organizations managed to collect $69 million in the immediate aftermath of his conviction, which caused temporary disruptions to his campaign website. Moreover, the aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million within the same timeframe.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups amassed $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.