Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic initiatives, reported this impressive amount in just two days, as tracked by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While this figure is unofficial and based on ActBlue’s tracking of donations since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of any required financial disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 cycle on ActBlue. The previous record for largest donations in recent history occurred on September 30, 2020, which coincided with the first debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s data.
The spike in contributions on Sunday elevated ActBlue’s total cash raised to $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed its enthusiasm, noting that many new small-dollar donors made their first-ever contributions in the past 24 hours, highlighting a strong grassroots movement.
Additionally, 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 his endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which aims to support the eventual Democratic nominee, also reported raising over $160,000 in just one day.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and offered his support. Notable Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also endorsed Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced a notable fundraising boost following a televised debate loss to Trump on June 27, raising around $28 million shortly thereafter. He garnered $19.2 million after Trump faced convictions on 34 felony charges. In contrast, Trump’s campaign experienced a significant influx of donations after his conviction, raising $69 million in a single day, which led to a temporary website crash for his campaign. In May, the super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups amassed $332.4 million, while pro-Trump organizations gathered $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in his campaign coffers compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.