The inevitable finally happened when Joe Biden accepted reality and stepped down from the presidential race. As expected, Biden has endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris.
The money from Biden’s campaign has already been transferred to Harris’ run since the current president was raising it in his and Harris’ name. By the end of June, Biden’s campaign has amassed $96 million, with the Democrats’ rival Donald Trump beating the current President by little over $30 million, according to Politico.
However, Vice President Kamala Harris has started her Democratic fundraiser to support her cause in the 2024 election. And, so far, she’s been flooded with donations.
Kamala Harris has raised $50 million within hours of Biden’s exit
Yes, you read that right. By late Sunday, July 21, Harris has already boasted over $50 million in donations, according to the New York Times. These calculations are made by judging contributions to Harris on ActBlue, the main site when it comes to Democratic donations. However, after 8 pm CT on July 21, ActBlue itself tweeted a minimally smaller number of $46.7 million.
Harris’ score so far has been impressive, to say the least. In fact, as The New York Times adds, it’s only the third time ActBlue has surpassed the $50 million threshold in a single day. The record was set in Sept. 2020, a day after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away when ActBlue recorded $73.5 million.
While these numbers are more than jaw-dropping, they could get even bigger in the coming days. “The floodgates will open. There’s been a lot of people holding back contributions that will now contribute because the whole thing — that whole situation was paralyzing our fundraising,” Chris Korge, the finance chair for Biden’s Victory Fund told NBC News after July 21’s news.
This could be true. According to ActBlue’s tweet from July 21’s evening, $27.5 million have been donated from small donors. So if only less than half of these $50 donations were made from the major supporters of the Democratic Party, chances are a lot of them may still contribute this week, as Korge expects.
“Focus has shifted back to beating Trump,” Justin Day, a fundraiser from Florida told NBC News. “I have already heard from a number of donors who have not participated this cycle who have reached out to tell me they are all in, no matter who the nominee ultimately is,” he added.
It’s not surprising to see the Democratic voters and donors react in such a way. After the assassination attempt on the former President, he has seemed to only gain in strength in the current presidential race. In his typical manner, he had already attacked Harris and, obviously, Biden.
He claimed the latter was the worst President in the history of the U.S., and that Harris will be even easier to defeat than the current leader of the Democratic Party. Very original, Mr. Trump. Give us a call when he says something creative other than just repeating simple insults over and over, again.