Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million from donors through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic causes, reported the substantial amount raised over the last two days via a live tracking system managed by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While this tally is unofficial and based on ActBlue’s comprehensive donation records since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising performance prior to formal disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donations reached $66.9 million following the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. This surpassed previous significant fundraising days, including one on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With this influx of contributions, ActBlue achieved a milestone of $14 billion in total donations since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion to date.
ActBlue noted a surge of first-time donors in the wake of the announcement, expressing excitement at the increased grassroots involvement. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, supporting the future Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Evercore founder Roger Altman stated that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and has extended his support to her. High-profile Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, are also backing Harris.
Previously, Biden saw a spike in contributions right after being outperformed by Trump during a televised debate on June 27, amassing around $28 million in donations within a day. Following Trump’s indictment on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump garnered $69 million within a day after his conviction. The overwhelming response from Trump’s supporters briefly crashed his campaign website, and his affiliated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million in that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden initiatives raised $332.4 million, compared to $431.2 million for pro-Trump groups, resulting in Biden having $281 million on hand against Trump’s $336.2 million by the end of June.