Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats amassed $100 million from donors via its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic organizations, reported this fundraising achievement over the past two days, based on a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While the total is not officially confirmed and comes from ActBlue’s historical tracking of donations since 2004, it offers insights into the group’s recent fundraising performance ahead of forthcoming disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions totaled $66.9 million for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the most successful fundraising day for ActBlue in the ongoing 2024 election cycle. This surpassed the previous high, which occurred on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced each other in their first presidential debate.
The substantial contributions on Sunday helped ActBlue surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has collected roughly $4.3 billion to date.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm over the influx of donations, noting an increase in first-time donors who contributed in the past 24 hours. “It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!” said the organization in a statement on X, previously known as Twitter.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from significant donors within a day of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Furthermore, Swing Left, which started a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, indicated on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and expressed his commitment to support her. Democratic heavyweights George and Alex Soros have also publicly backed Harris.
Earlier, Biden’s notable fundraising spikes occurred following his defeat by Trump in a televised debate on June 27, with Biden and his committees garnering around $28 million in the two days afterward, according to a New York Times analysis.
Biden raised an additional $19.2 million after Trump faced multiple felony counts. In contrast, Trump and his affiliated groups collected $69 million from May 30 to May 31 following the conviction, with the influx of donors reportedly causing a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. An associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million during that period.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups brought in $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden’s campaign had $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.