Following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he will not pursue re-election, the Democratic Party has raised $100 million through its primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This impressive sum was accumulated over just two days, according to a live tracker noted by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. While these figures are not yet official, they highlight the substantial fundraising efforts by the Democratic Party ahead of required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, supporters contributed $66.9 million in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. For context, the second-highest single-day fundraising record occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The surge in donations enabled ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has generated around $4.3 billion to date.
ActBlue reported a strong influx of first-time donors in the wake of these fundraising events, expressing enthusiasm for the growing grassroots movement.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day of the announcement. Another group, Swing Left, aimed at supporting the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in just 24 hours.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign is poised to be “very well financed.” High-profile Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown support for her campaign.
Previously, some of Biden’s most successful fundraising efforts occurred after a debate loss to Trump on June 27, during which Biden and his committees raised approximately $28 million over a two-day period. Additionally, Biden raised $19.2 million shortly after Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his affiliated groups managed to collect $69 million within the same timeframe, even causing a temporary crash of his campaign website.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups accumulated $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in available funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.