Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from donors via its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising platform supporting Democratic causes, reported the impressive sum over the preceding two days, according to a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although this figure is not official—derived from ActBlue’s extensive donation tracker established in 2004—it offers a glimpse into the organization’s fundraising performance ahead of any mandated disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors added $66.9 million to the inauguration of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the most lucrative 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 between Biden and Trump.
As a result of the donation surge on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican equivalent which was established in late 2019, has collected approximately $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
“We’ve seen countless individuals sharing that they made their first-ever donation in the last 24 hours!” ActBlue remarked in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday afternoon. “It’s incredibly inspiring to witness new grassroots supporters joining the movement!”
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from prominent donors within a day of Biden’s announcement and subsequent endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Swing Left, which initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, stated it raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe, according to Agence France-Presse.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her. Democratic mega-donors George and Alex Soros have also pledged their support to Harris.
Historically, Biden’s most successful fundraising days occurred right after he suffered a significant defeat by former President Donald Trump in a televised debate on June 27. Biden and his committees managed to raise about $28 million in the following day, as per a New York Times analysis.
In a separate context, Biden collected $19.2 million shortly after Trump was indicted on 34 felony counts. From the indictment date of May 30 to May 31, Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. The associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million in May.
Between April and June, groups supporting Biden raised $332.4 million, while those backing Trump brought in $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.