Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from donors through ActBlue, the primary fundraising platform for Democratic initiatives.
The substantial amount was recorded over a two-day period, as noted by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project who oversees a live donation tracker. Although the figures are not officially verified and are based on ActBlue’s internal tracking since 2004, they illustrate the group’s fundraising capabilities ahead of any required official disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors donated $66.9 million for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous high occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
This surge in donations allowed ActBlue to reach a milestone of $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue highlighted the surge of new donors, stating that many reported making their first donations in the past 24 hours. “It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!” the organization expressed in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left reported raising more than $160,000 within the same timeframe to support the eventual Democratic nominee.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and affirmed his support. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also expressed backing for Harris.
Biden’s previous notable fundraising efforts followed his loss to Donald Trump during a televised debate on June 27, when his campaign raised about $28 million. Additionally, Biden brought in $19.2 million after Trump was indicted on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million in the days surrounding the indictment, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. An associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised a total of $332.4 million, compared to $431.2 million for pro-Trump groups, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden’s campaign had $281 million in available funds, while Trump had $336.2 million at his disposal.