Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, the Democratic Party generated $100 million from donors through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising organization for Democratic entities, reported this amount over the past two days via a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. Although the figure is unofficial and derives from ActBlue’s extensive donation tracking since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising performance weeks ahead of required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donations totaled $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous peak was on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s tracker.
As a result of the donation surge, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its launch two decades ago. In contrast, its Republican counterpart, WinRed, has raised approximately $4.3 billion since its inception in late 2019.
ActBlue announced on X, formerly Twitter, that many contributors reported making their first-ever donations in the last 24 hours, highlighting the influx of small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Swing Left, which initiated a fund to back the eventual Democratic nominee, claimed it raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign, stating that it will be “very well financed” and publicly pledged his support. Notable Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also endorsed Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising immediately following his defeat by former President Donald Trump during a televised debate on June 27, raising about $28 million within a day. In the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden gathered $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliates raised $69 million in the days following his conviction on May 30. Trump’s campaign website briefly crashed due to the sudden influx of donors, and his aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups accumulated $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.