Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party reported a significant fundraising boost, raking in $100 million from donors via its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that serves Democratic organizations, recorded this impressive total over a two-day period. This figure, derived from a tracker developed by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project, is not officially confirmed but offers insight into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of upcoming disclosure deadlines.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking a record fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. This surpassed the previous high, recorded on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced off in their first debate.
The increased donations allowed ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has accumulated approximately $4.3 billion in donations.
ActBlue noted in a statement on social media that many donors had made their first contributions in the hours following Biden’s announcement, reflecting a wave of new grassroots support.
Moreover, 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 subsequent endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which has begun a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence about Harris’s campaign, indicating it would be “very well financed,” and acknowledged backing from notable Democratic donors such as George and Alex Soros.
Historically, Biden has seen substantial fundraising spikes following significant events, including $28 million raised in the aftermath of his debate loss to Trump on June 27, and nearly $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on multiple felony charges. In contrast, Trump and his affiliates raised $69 million in just two days after his indictment, even causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. During the April to June period, pro-Biden organizations gathered $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden reported having $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.