Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors through ActBlue, the primary fundraising platform for Democratic groups. Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, reported this amount based on ActBlue’s donation tracker, which has been tracking contributions since 2004. While this total is not officially sanctioned, it offers a glimpse into the fundraising activity ahead of mandated disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions amounted to $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, making it the most significant fundraising day of the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for donations in recent times was on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The substantial influx of donations on Sunday brought ActBlue’s total to $14 billion raised over its two-decade existence. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican analog that started in late 2019, has accumulated approximately $4.3 billion, as reported by OpenSecrets.
ActBlue remarked on social media, noting many individuals made their first donation within the last 24 hours, highlighting the excitement of seeing new small-dollar donors join the grassroots effort.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in fresh commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and Harris’s endorsement. Swing Left, which launched a fund in support of the future Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in Harris’s fundraising potential, stating her campaign will be “very well financed.” Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown their support for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s most significant fundraising spikes occurred after he faced defeat from Trump during a televised debate on June 27, raising approximately $28 million from that day to June 28. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden garnered $19.2 million in the days that followed, while Trump and affiliated groups raised $69 million in a short time, with his campaign website briefly crashing due to the influx of supporters.
From April to June, pro-Biden entities collected $332.4 million, while groups supporting Trump received $431.2 million, according to reports. By June’s end, Biden had $281 million in his campaign funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.