Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party raised an impressive $100 million through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that serves Democratic organizations, reported this significant fundraising amount over the past two days, as tracked by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. While this tally is not formally verified, it gives an indication of the fundraising success ahead of upcoming disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions reached $66.9 million for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 cycle on ActBlue. The previous record for donations was during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump on September 30, 2020.
With the influx of donations on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform started in late 2019, has gathered around $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed excitement on X, formerly Twitter, stating they witnessed many first-time donors contributing in the last 24 hours, highlighting the invigorating effect of new supporters joining the grassroots movement.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new pledges from major contributors within a day of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Additionally, Swing Left reported raising more than $160,000 shortly after the announcement, according to statements made to Agence France-Presse.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, mentioned on Monday that Harris’s campaign is expected to be “very well financed” and confirmed his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Biden’s previous significant fundraising spikes occurred after a series of noteworthy events, including a televised debate loss to Trump in June, which collectively raised about $28 million. Following Trump’s recent legal troubles, Biden garnered $19.2 million in the days following Trump’s 34 felony counts conviction. In the same timeframe, Trump and his affiliated groups raised a total of $69 million, briefly overwhelming his campaign website. The super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. amassed $70 million that month.
From April to June, groups supporting Biden raised around $332.4 million, while Trump-backed organizations collected approximately $431.2 million, per The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.