Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project, ActBlue recorded this amount over the past two days. While this count is unofficial and based on donations tracked since 2004, it offers insight into fundraising efforts ahead of mandatory disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions amounted to $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the most significant fundraising day thus far in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The next highest day was September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first Biden-Trump presidential debate.
This surge in donations helped ActBlue surpass $14 billion raised since its establishment two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform which began in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted on X, previously known as Twitter, that many individuals reported making their first donations in the last 24 hours, highlighting excitement from new small-dollar donors joining the grassroots effort.
Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, reportedly received $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Meanwhile, Swing Left, which focuses on supporting the Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and pledged his backing. Democratic mega-donors George and Alex Soros have also shown support for her campaign.
Historically, Biden’s most successful fundraising efforts occurred after he was criticized following a debate against Trump on June 27, 2020, raising approximately $28 million in the days that followed. Biden also garnered $19.2 million after Trump faced 34 felony counts. Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million in the 24 hours following his conviction on May 30, with his campaign website briefly crashing due to the influx of donors. In total, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million from April to June, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, leading to Biden having $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million by the end of June.