A day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million through its primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This amount was reported over a two-day period by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, via a live tracker. Although the number is not officially confirmed and is based on ActBlue’s extensive tracking of contributions since its establishment in 2004, it highlights the strength of their fundraising efforts ahead of upcoming disclosures.
On a single day, donors contributed $66.9 million to Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, making it the highest fundraising day in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. This surpassed the previous high, which occurred on September 30, 2020, during the presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the influx of donations recorded, ActBlue announced it had reached a milestone of $14 billion in funds raised since its inception twenty years ago, while its Republican counterpart, WinRed, which started in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion.
ActBlue noted on X, previously known as Twitter, that many first-time donors had stepped forward in the last 24 hours, expressing motivation from the surge of grassroots support. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, raised $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after his announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left also reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Evercore founder Roger Altman remarked on Monday that Harris’s campaign is expected to be well-financed, and prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also expressed their support for her.
Historically, Biden has seen significant fundraising boosts following notable events. After being challenged by Trump in a debate on June 27, Biden and his committees raised around $28 million in the following days. Further, Biden raised $19.2 million after Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his associated teams collected $69 million immediately after the ruling, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. An associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., brought in $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups amassed $332.4 million, compared to $431.2 million raised by pro-Trump groups. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available, while Trump had $336.2 million.