Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democratic fundraising saw a significant boost, with $100 million raised through its primary fundraising platform. ActBlue, the political action committee supporting Democratic initiatives, reported this amount over the past two days, based on a live tracker maintained by developer Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. Although the figures are not officially verified, they provide insight into recent fundraising efforts ahead of forthcoming disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donations reached $66.9 million in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single-day fundraising total for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous high occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the influx of contributions, ActBlue has now raised $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, as reported by OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted the enthusiasm among donors, stating on X, formerly known as Twitter, that many were making their first donations in recent days, which is encouraging for the grassroots movement. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, aiming to support the eventual Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 within 24 hours as well.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign financing, while prominent Democratic donors like George and Alex Soros have also pledged support. Historically, Biden’s fundraising has experienced spikes following significant events, including after his debate loss to Trump on June 27, which raised about $28 million in just over a day.
In the wake of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, he and his associated campaigns raised $69 million within two days. The remarkable surge of donations even caused a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. Overall, pro-Biden groups gathered $332.4 million between April and June, compared to $431.2 million raised by pro-Trump groups, leaving Biden with $281 million on hand, while Trump had $336.2 million.