Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, which serves as a political action committee for Democratic organizations, reported this amount over a span of two days, according to a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although this figure is not officially confirmed and is derived from ActBlue’s extensive donation history since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising efforts ahead of the mandatory disclosure deadlines.
On Sunday alone, supporters contributed a remarkable $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign kick-off, marking the most substantial fundraising day so far in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The second-highest daily total in recent years occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, as reported by Murphy.
As a result of this fundraising surge, ActBlue has now raised a total of $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has accumulated around $4.3 billion in donations, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue stated on social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, that they had received many messages from individuals making their first-ever donations in the last 24 hours, expressing excitement about the influx of new grassroots supporters.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, another organization that initiated a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee, announced it raised over $160,000 within the same 24-hour period.
Evercore founder Roger Altman mentioned on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and affirmed his support for her candidacy. Prominent Democratic donors, George and Alex Soros, have also expressed their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden’s most successful fundraising days were immediately following a televised debate defeat against Trump on June 27, where he and his committees raised approximately $28 million over the following day. Biden also garnered $19.2 million in the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million from May 30 to May 31, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. The super PAC aligned with him, Make America Great Again Inc., brought in $70 million that same month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump groups accumulated $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funding, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.