Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue reported raising $100 million from donors in a short span of time.
This fundraising achievement was highlighted by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, using a live tracker that monitors ActBlue’s donations. While the figures are not official, they provide insight into the organization’s fundraising performance ahead of required financial disclosures.
On Sunday, contributions surged to $66.9 million for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous record for daily donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate featuring Biden and Trump.
The donations on Sunday pushed ActBlue’s total raised since its inception two decades ago to $14 billion. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has collected about $4.3 billion.
ActBlue expressed excitement over the influx of first-time donations, noting a surge in new small-dollar supporters joining the grassroots movement. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, acquired $150 million in new commitments from significant donors shortly after Biden’s announcement. The organization Swing Left, which supports the future Democratic nominee, reported raising more than $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, commented that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and confirmed his support for her candidacy. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also pledged their backing.
Previously, Biden’s fundraising peaked after he was decisively defeated by Trump in a televised debate on June 27, where he and his committees raised approximately $28 million in the following days. Biden also secured $19.2 million shortly after Trump faced a conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his affiliates raised $69 million within the same period. Notably, the surge of donations briefly crashed Trump’s campaign website, and his associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups amassed $332.4 million compared to $431.2 million for pro-Trump groups. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in hand, while Trump held $336.2 million.