One day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democratic fundraising efforts reportedly surged, raising $100 million through ActBlue, the primary fundraising platform for Democratic organizations. This total was recorded within a two-day timeframe, according to a tracker created by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While these figures are not officially verified, they offer insight into the fundraising landscape ahead of the upcoming disclosures.
On a particularly notable day, Sunday, donors contributed approximately $66.9 million to Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising for the 2024 election cycle via ActBlue. The previous record was on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced off in their first presidential debate.
The recent surge allowed ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican equivalent that was established in late 2019, has accumulated around $4.3 billion, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets.
ActBlue reported an influx of first-time donors joining their grassroots efforts, expressing enthusiasm for the increased participation. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major contributors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and Harris’s endorsement. Swing Left, which set up a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated that Harris’s campaign would be significantly funded and affirmed his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors like George and Alex Soros have also expressed backing for her campaign.
In Biden’s previous fundraising efforts, he received substantial donations immediately following his defeats in debates against Donald Trump, with about $28 million raised within a day after a debate on June 27. Additionally, Biden brought in $19.2 million after Trump’s conviction on multiple felony counts, while Trump and related groups collected $69 million in a single day following his conviction, which briefly caused crashes on his campaign website. Pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million from April to June, while pro-Trump entities garnered $431.2 million during the same period. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.