Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, the Democratic Party raised an impressive $100 million through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, the political action committee and fundraising hub for Democratic organizations, reported this amount over the previous two days, based on a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although this figure is not official, it provides insights into the fundraising performance ahead of the upcoming required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, supporters contributed $66.9 million to launch Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, making it the most successful fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous high for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Thanks to the surge 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 launched in late 2019, has collected around $4.3 billion during its operations.
A spokesperson for ActBlue noted on social media that many donors expressed this was their first contribution, remarking on the influx of new small-dollar contributors to the grassroots movement.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which has initiated a fund in support of the Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, indicated that Harris’s campaign would be very well financed and pledged his support for her candidacy. Additionally, prominent Democratic donors like George and Alex Soros are also backing Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced substantial fundraising success following a notable debate defeat to Trump on June 27, raising approximately $28 million from that day through June 28. He also garnered $19.2 million in the days following Trump’s conviction on multiple felony counts. Trump’s campaign raised an astounding $69 million within 24 hours of his conviction. The influx of donations to Trump’s campaign even caused a temporary outage on his campaign website. An associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups amassed $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.