Following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not pursue re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from various donors using its primary fundraising platform, ActBlue, over a two-day period. This impressive figure comes from a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, even though it is considered unofficial and based on ActBlue’s own records since its inception in 2004.
On Sunday alone, contributions reached $66.9 million in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign launch, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle via ActBlue. For comparison, the second highest day of donations recently occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The influx of funds pushed ActBlue’s total cash raised to $14 billion since it was established two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, its Republican counterpart, has raised approximately $4.3 billion since its launch in late 2019, as per OpenSecrets data.
ActBlue noted the excitement surrounding new contributors, stating that many people reported making their first-ever donations in the past 24 hours, which they find encouraging for the grassroots movement.
Moreover, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which has formed a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, indicated it raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign, projecting that it would be “very well financed.” Democratic major donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their support for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s most successful fundraising days have been triggered by significant events, such as after being defeated by Trump in a televised debate last June, during which he and his committees raised around $28 million within a day. Additionally, following Trump’s indictment on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his associates pulled in $69 million in a similar timeframe, causing a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. Overall, between April and June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, contrasted with $431.2 million raised by pro-Trump groups. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.