Just a day after President Joe Biden announced that he would not pursue re-election, Democrats raised an impressive $100 million through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee dedicated to raising funds for Democratic initiatives, reported this amount accumulated over a two-day period, as noted by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While this figure is not official and is based on ActBlue’s own donation tracker since 2004, it highlights the fundraising momentum ahead of mandatory financial disclosures.
On Sunday alone, supporters contributed $66.9 million to the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest fundraising day for ActBlue in the lead-up to the 2024 election cycle. Murphy’s tracker noted that the previous record was set on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Thanks to this influx of donations, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in contributions raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has garnered about $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue highlighted the surge in new donors, stating on X (formerly Twitter) that many individuals mentioned making their first donation in the last 24 hours. “It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!” they said in a statement.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same time frame.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed optimism on Monday about the financial support for Harris’s campaign. Democratic mega-donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their support for her candidacy.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising success immediately following a televised debate loss to Trump on June 27, raising around $28 million between that day and the following day, according to a New York Times analysis.
Biden also gathered $19.2 million in the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. Trump and his affiliated organizations raised $69 million from May 30 to May 31 after his conviction, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. Another super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump organizations brought in $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.