Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from donors via ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising tool for Democratic organizations, noted the $100 million figure over two days, as tracked by Ryan Murphy, a developer affiliated with The Marshall Project. Although this tally is not official and draws from ActBlue’s extensive history tracking donations since 2004, it sheds light on the group’s fundraising performance ahead of any mandatory disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions reached $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for ActBlue in the current election cycle. The previous record was set on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the recent surge of donations, ActBlue has now surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. Its Republican counterpart, WinRed, which began soliciting donations in late 2019, has garnered approximately $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm on X, formerly Twitter, stating that many donors reported making their first donations in the previous 24 hours, highlighting the excitement surrounding new small-dollar contributors joining the grassroots movement.
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reportedly received $150 million in new commitments from high-profile donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Furthermore, Swing Left, which launched a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, announced it raised over $160,000 in the same 24-hour timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, indicated on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and pledged his support. Major Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also expressed their backing for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s most successful fundraising efforts occurred immediately after a competitive televised debate with Trump on June 27, where Biden and his teams raised approximately $28 million in just two days. Following the recent conviction of Trump on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million in the following days, while Trump and affiliated groups raised $69 million shortly after his conviction. Notably, the influx of donations to Trump’s campaign led to a temporary crash of his campaign website.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups accrued $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden was left with $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.