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.