Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from contributors through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee facilitating fundraising for Democratic initiatives, reported this substantial amount collected over a two-day period via a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. Although this figure is unofficial and based on ActBlue’s comprehensive donation records since 2004, it gives insight into the group’s fundraising performance prior to any official disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors provided $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising event in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The previous significant fundraising day occurred on September 30, 2020, during the initial presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Thanks to the donation surge on Sunday, ActBlue reached a significant milestone of raising $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, its Republican counterpart established in late 2019, has accumulated approximately $4.3 billion in funds, per data from OpenSecrets.
ActBlue shared on X, formerly Twitter, that they had seen numerous individuals making their first-ever donations in the previous 24 hours, expressing enthusiasm about the influx of new small-dollar contributors joining the grassroots movement.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from prominent donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and subsequent endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which formed a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, disclosed it raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her candidacy. Influential Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also endorsed Harris.
Historically, Biden’s best fundraising days have followed significant events. For instance, after a televised debate loss to Trump on June 27, 2020, Biden and associated committees generated around $28 million in the subsequent days. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million in the following days, while Trump and his affiliates amassed $69 million between May 30 and May 31, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. An aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised a similar $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump entities 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.