Following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he will not seek re-election, the Democratic Party saw an impressive fundraising boost, gathering $100 million from donors through ActBlue, its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, which supports Democratic initiatives, recorded this amount over just two days, as tracked by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While this figure is unofficial, as it stems from ActBlue’s internal tracking since 2004, it offers valuable insight into the recent surge in fundraising activity ahead of formal disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donations totaled $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking it as ActBlue’s most successful fundraising day for the 2024 election cycle. The second highest day for fundraising in recent memory was observed on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The influx of donations on Sunday also allowed ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that launched in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion to date.
“We’ve observed a large number of individuals stating they made their first donation in the last 24 hours!” ActBlue remarked in a statement on X, formerly Twitter. “It’s incredibly inspiring to witness new small-dollar donors joining our grassroots movement!”
In a significant turn, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major contributors within 24 hours after Biden endorsed Harris. Swing Left, which initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, the founder of Evercore, expressed on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and confirmed his support for her candidacy. Notable Democratic benefactors, including George and Alex Soros, have also pledged support to Harris.
Historically, Biden’s fundraising received a lift after his defeat by Trump in a televised debate on June 27, leading to about $28 million raised between that day and the following day. Additionally, Biden garnered $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. In contrast, Trump and his associated groups raised $69 million within the day following his conviction, with his campaign website briefly crashing due to the influx of donors.
Pro-Biden groups collectively raised $332.4 million between April and June, while pro-Trump groups took in $431.2 million during the same period. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in hand, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.