Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party gained significant momentum in fundraising, collecting $100 million from donors through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, the political action committee dedicated to fundraising for Democratic organizations, reported this figure over the past two days. This information comes from a live tracker created by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While the total is not official, it offers insights into fundraising performance before required disclosures are made.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking a record day for fundraising in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The second largest fundraising day occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the recent surge in donations, ActBlue has now raised a total of $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in late 2019, has accumulated around $4.3 billion.
ActBlue noted a surge in first-time donors over the past 24 hours, expressing enthusiasm for the new small-dollar contributors joining the grassroots movement.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Additionally, Swing Left reported raising over $160,000 shortly after the announcement.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed,” confirming his support. Democratic mega-donors George and Alex Soros have also pledged support for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s fundraising efforts peaked after his notable defeat to Trump during a debate on June 27, where he and his committees raised around $28 million in just over a day. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony charges, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliated groups garnered $69 million during the same timeframe, briefly crashing Trump’s campaign website. His aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, with Biden holding $281 million in cash by the end of June compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.