A day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from contributors through its key fundraising platform.
ActBlue, the fundraising platform for Democratic organizations, reported this total over two days, as tracked by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While these figures are not official and stem from ActBlue’s own tracking since 2004, they offer a preview of the group’s fundraising efforts ahead of required financial disclosures.
On Sunday, donations surged to $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the highest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous top donation day was September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump participated in their first presidential debate.
Thanks to the recent influx of donations, ActBlue has reached a total of $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the fundraising platform for Republicans, has raised approximately $4.3 billion since it launched in late 2019.
ActBlue noted a notable increase in first-time donors in their statement on social media, expressing excitement about the new supporters joining their grassroots movement.
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. Meanwhile, Swing Left reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed confidence in Harris’s financial backing, while prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also pledged support.
Previously, Biden’s fundraising peaked after a debate with Trump on June 27, where his committees raised around $28 million in just one day. Following Trump’s conviction on multiple felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million shortly after, while Trump and his affiliated groups garnered $69 million in the same period, leading to a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. Additionally, the super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups amassed $332.4 million, while pro-Trump organizations collected $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.