Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he will not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million through ActBlue, their main fundraising platform. This amount was recorded over a two-day period, according to a live tracker developed by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. Although these figures are unofficial and based on ActBlue’s comprehensive history since 2004, they give insight into fundraising activities ahead of required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors donated $66.9 million for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous record for a single day of donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The surge in donations resulted in ActBlue surpassing $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. Its Republican counterpart, WinRed, has raised approximately $4.3 billion since it started operating in late 2019, according to OpenSecrets.
In a statement on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, ActBlue noted that many new donors were making their first contributions in the last 24 hours. The platform expressed excitement at the influx of small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, garnered $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which has initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within 24 hours.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden’s strongest fundraising days occurred shortly after he faced a significant defeat by Donald Trump during a televised debate on June 27, resulting in approximately $28 million raised within a day. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden’s campaign raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliated groups brought in $69 million in the immediate aftermath of his conviction. At one point, the influx of donors caused Trump’s campaign website to crash, and his aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.