Shortly after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million through their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue.
According to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project, the significant fundraising took place over just two days. Though the figures are not official, they illustrate the group’s robust fundraising efforts ahead of scheduled disclosures. On a single day, donors contributed a remarkable $66.9 million to launch Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest fundraising day in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The previous record was set on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With this recent surge, ActBlue has now raised a total of $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has garnered about $4.3 billion in donations.
ActBlue expressed excitement over the recent influx of new donors, stating that many made their first contributions in the last 24 hours, which they described as motivating for the grassroots movement. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, reported securing $150 million in new commitments from significant donors within a day of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Another organization, Swing Left, highlighted raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, indicated that Harris’s campaign is poised for substantial financial backing and has received support from prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros. Biden had previously experienced successful fundraising days after being outperformed by Trump during a debate in June, raising approximately $28 million in that period. Following Trump’s indictment on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his associates raised $69 million from the day of his conviction to the following day, overwhelming his campaign website with traffic. In contrast, from April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump efforts garnered $431.2 million, leaving Biden with $281 million compared to Trump’s $336.2 million by the end of June.