Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from donors via its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, which serves as a political action committee and fundraising tool for Democratic entities, achieved this impressive sum in the past two days, according to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While this figure is not official, it is derived from ActBlue’s personal donation tracker that has been in operation since 2004, giving insight into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of any required financial disclosures.
On Sunday alone, supporters contributed an astounding $66.9 million to launch Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the most significant fundraising day in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous peak fundraising day occurred on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced off in their first presidential debate.
With this influx of donations on Sunday, ActBlue reached $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, its Republican counterpart that started in late 2019, has generated approximately $4.3 billion during its operation, as reported by OpenSecrets.
ActBlue stated on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it had received many accounts of first-time donations in the last 24 hours, expressing excitement over the new small-dollar contributors joining the grassroots movement.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day of Biden’s announcement and subsequent endorsement of Harris. Additionally, Swing Left, which has set up a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, commented on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed,” pledging his support to her. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also endorsed Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising days following a June debate loss to former president Donald Trump, garnering around $28 million between June 27 and June 28, based on New York Times analysis.
Biden also raised $19.2 million in the aftermath of Trump being convicted on 34 felony counts. During that same period, Trump and his affiliated groups amassed $69 million from May 30 to May 31, triggering a brief crash of Trump’s campaign website. The associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.