Just one day after President Joe Biden announced that he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors through their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This figure was recorded over a two-day period, according to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although these numbers are not official, they provide insight into the fundraising efforts ahead of required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions totaled $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s newly launched presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous best day for donations was on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the surge in donations on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. By comparison, WinRed, the Republican counterpart founded in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion.
In a statement on X, previously known as Twitter, ActBlue noted the engagement from new donors, stating, “We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first ever donation in the last 24 hours! It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reported $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris. Meanwhile, Swing Left, an organization supporting the Democratic candidate, raised over $160,000 shortly after.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, indicated on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also pledged their backing.
Historically, Biden has seen significant fundraising boosts immediately following pivotal moments, including $28 million raised after a tough debate against Trump on June 27. Furthermore, Biden garnered $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his associated groups raised $69 million shortly after his conviction, with Trump’s campaign website briefly crashing due to the influx of donors.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups collected $332.4 million compared to $431.2 million raised by pro-Trump factions. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million on hand, while Trump had $336.2 million.