Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic groups, reported this significant fundraising total through a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While the numbers are not official and stem from ActBlue’s comprehensive donation tracker since 2004, they offer insight into fundraising activity ahead of disclosure requirements.
On Sunday, contributors donated $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising achievement for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. This surpassed a previous high recorded on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Due to the influx of donations, ActBlue reached $14 billion in total cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed—its Republican counterpart launched in late 2019—has raised approximately $4.3 billion, as reported by OpenSecrets.
In a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, ActBlue highlighted a surge of first-time donors in the past 24 hours, expressing enthusiasm about the strength of grassroots support.
The Biden-aligned super PAC Future Forward secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day of Biden’s announcement endorsing Harris, according to Politico. Additionally, Swing Left launched a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee and reported raising over $160,000 in just 24 hours.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, voiced his support for Harris’s campaign, stating that it would be “very well financed.” Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also expressed their backing for her candidacy.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising spikes following his substantial debate loss to Trump on June 27. In the aftermath, Biden and his associated groups garnered around $28 million within a day. Similarly, Biden raised $19.2 million after Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts; in contrast, Trump and his affiliates raised $69 million in the days following his conviction, leading to a temporary crash of his campaign website. Moreover, the Trump-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 pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden reported having $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.