Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from donors through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, the political action committee and fundraising platform for Democratic organizations, recorded this amount over a two-day period, as tracked by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although the figure is unofficial and comes from ActBlue’s extensive donation tracker since 2004, it highlights the group’s impressive fundraising capabilities just weeks before mandatory financial disclosures are due.
On Sunday alone, donations totaled $66.9 million for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, representing the highest daily fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle on ActBlue. The previous record for daily donations was set on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
As a result of this surge in donations, ActBlue has now raised a cumulative $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that started in late 2019, has collected approximately $4.3 billion.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm on social media about the new influx of donors, stating that many were making their first-ever contributions in the last 24 hours. This marks a motivating shift for grassroots fundraising efforts.
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris. Similarly, Swing Left reported raising over $160,000 within a day for the eventual Democratic nominee.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and confirmed his support for her. Notable Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also pledged their backing.
Previously, Biden’s significant fundraising days occurred after he experienced a major debate defeat against Trump on June 27, during which Biden and his committees raised approximately $28 million within two days. Following Trump’s indictment on multiple felony charges, Biden raised $19.2 million within a few days, whereas Trump and associated groups raised $69 million shortly after.
Between April and June, groups supporting Biden raised $332.4 million, while those backing Trump garnered $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funding compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.