Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, the Democratic Party successfully raised $100 million from donors through its primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy, a developer with The Marshall Project, ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic organizations, noted this total over the last two days. While the amount has not been officially confirmed, it is based on ActBlue’s extensive donation data gathered since 2004, offering insight into the group’s fundraising outcomes ahead of any required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign reached $66.9 million, marking it as the highest fundraising day in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous high for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate featuring Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s tracker.
Due to the surge in donations on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that began in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion, as reported by OpenSecrets.
ActBlue stated on X, formerly Twitter, that many individuals reported making their first donations in the past 24 hours, expressing excitement over the influx of new small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, according to Politico. Swing Left, which has initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed his belief that Harris’s campaign will be well-funded and declared his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also thrown their financial backing behind Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising boosts following a televised debate defeat by former president Donald Trump on June 27. Biden and his committees raised approximately $28 million during the immediate aftermath of that debate. Additionally, he raised $19.2 million in the days following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his associated groups raised $69 million from May 30 to May 31, coinciding with the spike in donations that temporarily crashed Trump’s campaign website. An affiliated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., amassed $70 million within that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.