Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, the Democratic Party raised an impressive $100 million from donors via its primary fundraising platform. ActBlue, which serves as a political action committee and fundraising hub for Democratic organizations, reported this total over a two-day period, according to a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While these figures are unofficial and drawn from ActBlue’s donation records since 2004, they illustrate the group’s financial momentum ahead of official disclosure deadlines.
On Sunday alone, contributors gave $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. This surpassed previous high points, including September 30, 2020, when donations spiked following the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Thanks to this remarkable fundraising surge on Sunday, ActBlue crossed the $14 billion milestone in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has amassed around $4.3 billion in total.
ActBlue noted on X, formerly Twitter, that many contributors shared they made their first-ever donations in the past 24 hours, describing the influx of new small-dollar donors as highly encouraging for grassroots efforts.
In addition to ActBlue’s success, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in fresh commitments from major donors within one day following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Another group, Swing Left, which supports the eventual Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” as he pledged his support. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also shown backing for Harris.
Biden’s fundraising peaks before this moment were observed directly after he was significantly challenged by Trump during a debate on June 27. Following that event, Biden and his committees raised approximately $28 million over the next day. In the aftermath of Trump being convicted on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliates collected $69 million in the 24 hours post-conviction. Trump’s campaign website temporarily crashed due to the surge in donations, and an associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden entities raised a total of $332.4 million, while groups aligned with Trump accumulated $431.2 million. By the close of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.