Just one day after President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million from donors via their main fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee dedicated to fundraising for Democratic organizations, reported this figure over a span of two days, as shown by a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although the tally is not officially confirmed and stems from ActBlue’s donation tracking since 2004, it highlights the group’s fundraising activity ahead of any formal disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donations reached $66.9 million supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the most successful fundraising day in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for daily donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the surge in donations from Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the fundraising platform for Republicans that began in 2019, has accumulated approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted on social media that many individuals reported making their first-ever donations within the last 24 hours, demonstrating a significant influx of new small-dollar donors to the grassroots movement.
Future Forward, a super PAC supportive of Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Additionally, Swing Left, which initiated a fund backing the eventual Democratic nominee, stated it raised over $160,000 in just 24 hours.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed on Monday that Harris’s campaign is expected to be “very well financed” and offered his support. Prominent Democratic donors such as George and Alex Soros have also endorsed Harris.
Biden previously enjoyed strong fundraising days immediately following his losses to Donald Trump during a debate on June 27, where Biden and his committees raised about $28 million in that time frame, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million while Trump and his affiliated groups garnered $69 million between May 30 and May 31. The rush of donations even caused a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. The associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., collected $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised a total of $332.4 million, while pro-Trump organizations accumulated $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.