Following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party’s main fundraising platform, ActBlue, reported raising $100 million from donors within just two days. This figure was recorded by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, using a live tracker of donations.
On a single day, donors contributed $66.9 million to kickstart Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous record was set on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the recent influx of donations, ActBlue reached a significant milestone, having raised $14 billion since its launch two decades ago. The Republican fundraising platform WinRed, which began in late 2019, has raised about $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted an enthusiastic response from new donors, stating that many made their first contributions in the wake of Biden’s announcement. Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reportedly received $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after his endorsement of Harris. Additionally, the organization Swing Left raised over $160,000 within 24 hours to support the eventual Democratic nominee.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in Harris’s funding capabilities, declaring her campaign would be “very well financed” and highlighting the support from prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros.
Historically, Biden’s fundraising peaks occurred after key moments, such as following a debate defeat against Trump in June 2020, which generated about $28 million in donations. Additionally, after Trump’s conviction on felony counts, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million between April and June, compared to $431.2 million for pro-Trump groups during the same period. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funding while Trump had $336.2 million.