Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors through their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue.
According to Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project who maintains a live tracker, donors contributed a notable $66.9 million on Sunday alone to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. This marked the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 cycle through ActBlue. The second-best fundraising day occurred on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The donations on Sunday helped ActBlue reach a significant milestone, totaling $14 billion raised since its establishment two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the fundraising platform for Republicans that began in late 2019, has collected roughly $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue shared on social media that many individuals reported making their first-ever donations in the past 24 hours, expressing excitement about the influx of new small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement.
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day of Biden’s announcement supporting Harris. Swing Left, which launched a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign, stating it would be “very well financed” and announced his support. Democratic benefactors George and Alex Soros have also shown backing for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s fundraising peaks have followed significant events, including a previous record of $28 million raised in the days following a defeat by Trump in a televised debate in June and $19.2 million collected after Trump’s conviction on 34 felony charges. Trump and his affiliated groups raked in $69 million the day after his conviction, leading to a brief crash of his campaign website. An aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month alone.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.