Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors through ActBlue, a prominent fundraising platform for Democratic organizations.
According to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project, ActBlue reported this impressive sum over the past two days. While this figure has not been officially verified and is based on ActBlue’s extensive tracking of donations since 2004, it offers insight into the organization’s fundraising success ahead of the required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the highest fundraising day of the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for daily donations occurred on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump participated in their first presidential debate.
Thanks to the donation surge on Sunday, ActBlue reached a milestone of $14 billion in funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has collected around $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, ActBlue expressed excitement over the influx of new small-dollar donors, noting that many reported making their initial donations in the past 24 hours.
Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, Politico reported. Additionally, Swing Left, which formed a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, indicated it raised over $160,000 within a single day.
Evercore founder Roger Altman stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign is likely to be “very well financed” and voiced his support. Prominent Democratic contributors George and Alex Soros have also expressed their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden’s best fundraising days occurred following a significant defeat against Donald Trump during a televised debate on June 27, which resulted in approximately $28 million raised by Biden and his committees within 24 hours. Biden also generated $19.2 million after Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, with Trump and his affiliated groups raising $69 million between May 30 and May 31. In fact, the spike in donations briefly overwhelmed Trump’s campaign website. His aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., garnered $70 million that same month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden organizations collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups received $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.