Tim Walz VP announcement sparks huge fundraising among Democrats

• In the three hours after Walz became the VP nominee, Dems raised $6.6 million.
• Walz leaned on his progressive policies and background as a teacher in his first fundraising blast.
• Some billionaires and tech leaders have already voiced their support for Walz.

For all his down-to-earth Midwestern charm , Gov. Tim Walz is also evidently raking in big bucks. In the hours after Kamala Harris announced Walz as her running mate , donations poured into her campaign.

The news that Harris selected Walz dropped just after 9 am — Business Insider published an article at 9:22 a.m. Eastern Time — and fundraising immediately spiked. Between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., donors contributed $6.6 million to ActBlue, the primary Democratic fundraising platform, Politico reported .

By 2:30 pm, Democrats had raised nearly $17 million in a 24-hour period, according to an online ActBlue tracker .

The Harris campaign blasted out its first fundraising email from Walz, which leaned into his history as a teacher and football coach.

"It feels like the first day of school," the email read before imploring the recipient to pitch in $25. It also called Donald Trump and JD Vance "weird," a now-iconic insult that Walz came up with, and leaned into the governor's progressive policy history.

Harris has smashed various fundraising records since launching her campaign, breaking the single-day record when she amassed $81 million in a single day . In July, her campaign raised $310 million and saw a surge of support among Gen Z and millennial donors.

Though Harris touts the number of grassroots donors, she also has support from billionaires, business leaders, and big names in Silicon Valley . Some are already supporting Walz, too, with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban throwing their weight behind him shortly after the announcement.