Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors via their main fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising platform for Democratic organizations, recorded this amount over the last two days, based on a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While the figure is not official and is derived from ActBlue’s mega-tracker of total donations since its inception in 2004, it showcases the group’s fundraising momentum ahead of required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. This surpassed the previous high on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced off in their first presidential debate, according to Murphy’s tracker.
The fundraising boost from Sunday also propelled ActBlue’s total cash raised to $14 billion since it was established two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican equivalent launched in late 2019, has accumulated approximately $4.3 billion since starting its donation collection efforts.
ActBlue stated on X, formerly known as Twitter, that they received many first-time donations in the past 24 hours, expressing excitement over the influx of new grassroots supporters.
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, according to Politico. Swing Left, which started a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same time frame.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and announced his support for her candidacy. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden’s fundraising received a significant boost after his poor performance in a debate against former president Donald Trump on June 27, leading to approximately $28 million raised within a day. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony charges, Biden raised $19.2 million in the immediate aftermath, while Trump and his affiliated organizations garnered $69 million from May 30 to May 31, causing a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. An associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million during that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $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 in available funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.