A day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party’s fundraising efforts saw a significant boost, raising $100 million through its primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This information comes from a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy, a developer with The Marshall Project. While the figure is not officially verified, it offers insight into the fundraising surge ahead of required disclosures.
On Sunday, alone, donors provided $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking a record fundraising day for the 2024 election cycle on ActBlue. This surpassed the previous high recorded on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With this latest surge, ActBlue reached a total of $14 billion in funds raised since its inception 20 years ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising counterpart launched in late 2019, has collected approximately $4.3 billion to date.
ActBlue’s statement on social media noted a surge in new donors, with many indicating they made their first-ever contributions following Biden’s announcement. Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major contributors within 24 hours of Biden’s endorsement of Harris. Additionally, the group Swing Left reported raising over $160,000 shortly after.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign financing, stating it would be “very well financed,” and noted support from prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros.
Biden’s previous highpoints for fundraising were noted after his debates with Trump, where he raised $28 million following a June debate. Subsequent events, including Trump’s conviction on felony charges, also prompted significant fundraising activity. Reports indicated Biden and his affiliated groups raised $332.4 million from April to June, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million during the same period. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in available funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.