Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee dedicated to fundraising for Democratic entities, reported this amount over a two-day period, as tracked by developer Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. This tally, while unofficial and based on ActBlue’s continuous donation tracker dating back to 2004, offers early insight into the fundraising results ahead of any formal disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors provided $66.9 million to kickstart Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking a significant fundraising day in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The second-highest donation day in recent history was noted on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced off in their first presidential debate, according to Murphy’s tracker.
With this surge in contributions, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in late 2019, has accumulated approximately $4.3 billion.
“We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first-ever donation in the last 24 hours!” ActBlue declared in a statement on X, previously known as Twitter. “It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, received $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, according to Politico. Additionally, Swing Left, which started a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within a single day.
Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and voiced his support for her candidacy. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also pledged their backing.
Previously, Biden experienced notable fundraising success following a televised debate defeat against Trump on June 27, raising about $28 million in just two days. Additionally, he garnered $19.2 million in contributions following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. During the same period, Trump and his associated groups raised $69 million, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. An aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, while groups supporting Trump collected $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.