Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not be running for re-election, the Democratic Party raised an impressive $100 million through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee dedicated to fundraising for Democratic initiatives, recorded this substantial amount over the previous two days, as reported by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While this total is not officially confirmed—deriving from ActBlue’s extensive tracking system established in 2004—it offers a glimpse into the organization’s fundraising success ahead of required reporting deadlines.
On Sunday alone, contributors provided $66.9 million to support the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest fundraising day of the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The second-best donation day in recent memory occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s tracking data.
With this surge in donations, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, a Republican fundraising platform that began in late 2019, has accumulated approximately $4.3 billion.
“We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first ever donation in the last 24 hours!” ActBlue stated in a recent post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, garnered $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, a fund established to support the Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed his belief that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” while also pledging his support. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros are also backing Harris.
Previously, Biden’s strongest fundraising days coincided with a televised debate defeat against Trump on June 27, where Biden and his committees raised about $28 million in the following days. Additionally, Biden raised $19.2 million after Trump was charged with felony counts. In a sharp increase in donations, Trump’s campaign experienced a temporary website crash due to a $69 million fundraising influx between May 30 and May 31, following his conviction. An aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, groups supporting Biden raised $332.4 million, while those supporting Trump raised $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in available funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.