Just a day after President Joe Biden announced that he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from donors via its main fundraising platform, ActBlue. This information comes from a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. The amount raised reflects contributions recorded over the past two days, although it’s important to note that the tally is not official and is based on ActBlue’s extensive donation tracking since its inception in 2004.
On Sunday, donors contributed $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, making it the largest fundraising day so far in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous high was recorded during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump on September 30, 2020.
With this recent surge in donations, ActBlue has surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since it was founded two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, its Republican counterpart that started in late 2019, has generated approximately $4.3 billion since its launch.
ActBlue noted on Monday that many contributors mentioned they made their first donations in the last 24 hours, highlighting the enthusiasm of new small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement.
In addition to ActBlue’s successes, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris. Another group, Swing Left, reported raising more than $160,000 in just 24 hours.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign will have significant financial backing and expressed his support for her. High-profile Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown their support.
Historically, Biden has seen a boost in fundraising in response to significant campaign events; for instance, after his debate defeat by Trump on June 27, he and his committees raised around $28 million in the following days. Additionally, Biden raised $19.2 million after Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts. In contrast, Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million in the same period after his conviction, briefly crashing his campaign website due to the influx of contributors. A super PAC aligned with Trump, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds available, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.