Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from donors through ActBlue, their principal fundraising platform.
ActBlue, which serves as a political action committee and fundraising tool for Democratic organizations, recorded this impressive fundraising total over the past two days, according to a live tracker developed by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. While the figure is unofficial and based on ActBlue’s own historical data since its inception in 2004, it highlights the group’s fundraising success just weeks ahead of any mandatory financial disclosures.
On Sunday alone, supporters contributed $66.9 million to the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, making it the biggest fundraising day of the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The second largest donation day in recent memory was on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s data.
This substantial influx on Sunday helped ActBlue surpass $14 billion in total contributions since its founding two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that began operation in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion to date, according to OpenSecrets.
In a statement on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, ActBlue highlighted the surge of new small-dollar donors: “We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first ever donation in the last 24 hours! It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, gathered $150 million in new commitments from significant donors within 24 hours of his announcement and Harris’s subsequent endorsement. Swing Left, which is focused on supporting the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in just one day.
On Monday, Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed confidence that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and confirmed his backing for her candidacy. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also endorsed Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced large fundraising successes right after challenging debates, notably raising about $28 million from June 27 to June 28 after a debate with Trump. After Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden also garnered $19.2 million in contributions. During the same time frame, Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million, crashing his campaign website briefly. An aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., collected $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million while pro-Trump factions brought in $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden held $281 million in campaign funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.