Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million through their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue.
According to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project, this amount was collected over the past two days. While the total has not been officially verified, it reflects the fundraising performance of ActBlue since its inception in 2004 and provides insights into recent donation trends ahead of official disclosures.
On Sunday, in particular, donors contributed $66.9 million toward the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, making it the most significant fundraising day for the 2024 election cycle on ActBlue. For context, the previous record for a single day of donations occurred on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, as per Murphy’s analysis.
This surge in donations allowed ActBlue to reach a milestone, with a total of $14 billion raised since its establishment two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform started in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, as highlighted by OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted that many individuals reported making their first-ever donations shortly after Biden’s announcement, reflecting a growing grassroots movement.
In addition, a Biden-aligned super PAC, Future Forward, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris. Another group, Swing Left, revealed it raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, the founder of Evercore, expressed strong support for Harris’s campaign, predicting it would be “very well financed.” Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for her candidacy.
Historically, Biden has experienced significant fundraising boosts following high-stakes moments in the political landscape. For instance, after being outmatched by Trump in a televised debate on June 27, Biden and his committees raised around $28 million in the days that followed. Additionally, after Trump faced legal convictions on multiple felony counts, Biden amassed $19.2 million in fundraising, while Trump and his affiliates raised $69 million in the immediate aftermath of his conviction.
Overall, between April and June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump organizations collected $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in his coffers compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.