Just a day after President Joe Biden announced that he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from donors through its primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project, ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising platform for Democratic organizations, recorded this significant fundraising figure over the previous two days. Although this tally is unofficial, it reflects the organization’s fundraising outcomes just weeks before any formal disclosures are due.
On Sunday alone, contributions reached $66.9 million to support the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single-day fundraising total for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous high for donations was on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The boost in donations for ActBlue brought its total cash raised to $14 billion since its inception two decades ago, while WinRed, its Republican counterpart established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm on social media, stating that many donors reported making their first contributions in the last 24 hours, highlighting a surge in grassroots support.
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from significant donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, indicated on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and confirmed his support for her candidacy. Major Democratic donors, George Soros and Alex Soros, have also pledged their backing to Harris.
Previously, Biden’s notable fundraising efforts occurred right after he faced a significant defeat by Trump during a televised debate on June 27. He and his committees raised about $28 million from that date to June 28, as reported by the New York Times. Biden also garnered $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. In a striking contrast, Trump and his associated groups raised $69 million between May 30 and May 31, which briefly caused his campaign website to crash. During the same month, the Make America Great Again Inc. super PAC brought in $70 million.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.