Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from donors through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project, this amount was amassed over the last two days. While this tally is unofficial and derived from ActBlue’s historical donation data since 2004, it sheds light on the group’s fundraising performance before any mandated disclosures are due.
On Sunday alone, the campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris saw $66.9 million in donations as she launched her presidential campaign, marking the largest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The second highest was recorded on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
As a result of the donation surge, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total fundraising since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that started in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted the enthusiasm from new donors, with many indicating it was their first-ever contribution. They expressed motivation at the influx of grassroots supporters joining the movement.
Within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, the super PAC Future Forward, aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors. Additionally, Swing Left reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe to support the eventual Democratic nominee.
Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed his support for Harris’s campaign, stating it would be “very well financed.” Democratic mega-donors George and Alex Soros have also pledged their backing to Harris.
In the past, Biden’s significant fundraising spikes occurred right after a televised debate defeat to Donald Trump on June 27, during which he raised approximately $28 million. Furthermore, Biden raised $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on felony counts, while Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million immediately after the conviction, briefly crashing Trump’s campaign website. An aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
In the period from April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.