Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, the Democratic Party has generated $100 million from donors using its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, which serves as a political action committee and a fundraising tool for Democratic organizations, recorded this amount over the past two days, as reported by a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although this figure is unofficial and based on ActBlue’s cumulative records of donations dating back to 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising achievements just weeks ahead of any mandated disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The second-highest day for donations in recent history was September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The exceptional fundraising on Sunday helped ActBlue surpass $14 billion in total cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican equivalent that started in late 2019, has collected approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue stated on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “we’ve seen many first-time donors in the past 24 hours!” highlighting the excitement surrounding new smaller-dollar contributions joining the grassroots effort.
Following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, the Future Forward super PAC, aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours. Additionally, Swing Left, which has initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, emphasized on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and voiced his support for her candidacy. Notable Democratic mega-donors George and Alex Soros have also backed Harris.
Previously, Biden’s most substantial fundraising days occurred immediately after he faced off against Trump in a debate on June 27, raising about $28 million within that time. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million. Conversely, Trump and his associated organizations collected $69 million in the days following his conviction. The surge in donations caused a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website, while an aligned super PAC raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations amassed $332.4 million, while those supporting Trump brought in $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.