Excitement over Kamala Harris activates unprecedented flood of Democratic donors

Vice President Kamala Harris activated a flood of Democratic donors who had been on the sidelines, new data shows: More people donated to her campaign in its first 10 days than in the entire 15 months of President Joe Biden’s.

And most of the donors were new not only to the campaign but to giving to any Democrats this cycle.

Harris’ campaign and affiliated joint fundraising committees received contributions from nearly 2.3 million individual donors from July 21, when Biden dropped out of the race, through July 31, according to a detailed POLITICO analysis of new fundraising data. Biden had just shy of 2.1 million donors dating back to April 2023, when he formally launched his reelection bid. (In fact, Harris surpassed Biden a day earlier, on July 30.)

Roughly 70 percent of Harris’ donors, more than 1.5 million people, had not given to Biden’s campaign. Most had not given to any Democratic candidates and groups at all this cycle.

That surge reflects an unprecedented level of Democratic enthusiasm — and is a stark illustration of how Harris was able to tap into a portion of the party’s base that Biden simply was not reaching. Further underscoring that: About one quarter of the new Harris donors, a bit shy of 400,000 people, had actually given to Biden’s 2020 campaign but not to his reelection bid.

The flood of money has equipped Harris with the financial resources to rapidly revamp her campaign ahead of what remains a highly competitive general election with former President Donald Trump, and has allayed Democratic fears about their party’s enthusiasm.

POLITICO’s analysis of campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission includes donations of any amount given directly to the Biden and Harris campaigns or joint fundraising committees through ActBlue, the major Democratic fundraising platform, as well as large donations reported directly to the campaigns or through joint fundraising committees. Small donations not given through ActBlue — only a small fraction of donations — are not itemized in FEC reports and thus are not counted.

While Biden’s grassroots fundraising never fully took off , his operation was buoyed by a strong base of recurring donors. Many of those donors continued to stick with Biden even after the June debate that eventually led to his withdrawal. His online fundraising was steady in the first few weeks of July, the new filings show — in contrast to the fears of big donors, some of whom suggested they would withhold funding until he dropped out.

But Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race also showcased the kind of small-dollar-donor enthusiasm Democrats had been missing out on with him as a candidate. The day he dropped out, the newly minted Harris’ campaign got 3.5 times the donations as Biden’s campaign had received on its best day.

There’s no obvious distinction, at least on paper, between the types of donors giving to Harris after Biden’s dropout and those who gave to his campaign.

Harris had more donors than Biden from all but a handful of states, with the greatest increase coming in her home state of California, followed by New York and Georgia — and the largest drops in Florida and Delaware. A slight majority of Harris’ donors appear to be female, which was also true of Biden’s donors, based on a POLITICO analysis of first names.

Donors still represent only a small segment of voters, and whether the excitement for Harris among the party’s base translates into broader appeal remains to be seen. But the money also has a tangible impact for her campaign: Harris immediately reversed Trump’s cash advantage, with her campaign ending July with $68 million more in the bank than the former president.