Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democratic donors contributed $100 million through ActBlue, the primary fundraising platform for Democratic organizations. This amount was recorded over a span of two days, as tracked by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. Although not an official figure, it gives insight into the group’s fundraising performance before any formal disclosures are made.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed an impressive $66.9 million to launch Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The second-highest daily fundraising total in recent times occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The boost in donations on Sunday helped ActBlue surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. Comparatively, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that began in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion.
ActBlue celebrated the influx of first-time donors, stating, “We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first ever donation in the last 24 hours! It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reported securing $150 million in new commitments from major contributors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement endorsing Harris. Swing Left, which established a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, indicated that it raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and affirmed his support. Notable Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also pledged their backing to Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising success after being defeated by Trump during a debate on June 27, raising around $28 million within a day. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden collected $19.2 million, while Trump and his associated groups amassed $69 million in the immediate aftermath of his conviction, leading to a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. An aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, compared to the $431.2 million raised by pro-Trump groups. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available, while Trump had $336.2 million.