Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised an impressive $100 million through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee dedicated to supporting Democratic initiatives, reported this substantial amount over a two-day period, according to a live tracker developed by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. While not an official count, this figure is derived from ActBlue’s own extensive donation tracking since its inception in 2004, offering insight into fundraising results ahead of any formal disclosures.
On Sunday alone, supporters contributed $66.9 million to the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle recorded by ActBlue. The previous peak for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Thanks to this increase in contributions, ActBlue has now raised a total of $14 billion since it began operations two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that started in late 2019, has accumulated approximately $4.3 billion, as per OpenSecrets.
Following the announcement, ActBlue noted a wave of new contributors, stating, “We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first-ever donation in the last 24 hours! It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Additionally, Swing Left revealed that it raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe to support the eventual Democratic nominee.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in the financial backing for Harris’s campaign, asserting that it will be “very well financed.” Prominent Democratic donors, such as George and Alex Soros, have also shown their support for her candidacy.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising boosts following defeats or controversies involving Trump, including about $28 million raised in the days after a heated debate on June 27 and $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony charges. During the same timeframe, Trump’s campaigns raised $69 million from May 30 to May 31 alone, with his website briefly crashing due to the influx of donations, while the associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., garnered $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups raised a total of $332.4 million, compared to $431.2 million for pro-Trump groups. By the close of June, Biden had $281 million on hand, while Trump had $336.2 million.