Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, the Democratic Party garnered $100 million from donors through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee dedicated to fundraising for Democratic initiatives, reported this figure over a span of two days, based on a tracking system managed by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While the total is not officially verified—originating from the ActBlue donation tracker since its inception in 2004—it offers insight into the organization’s fundraising performance ahead of required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donations surged to $66.9 million for the kickoff of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest fundraising day for ActBlue in the current election cycle. The previous peak came on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, as noted by Murphy’s tracker.
The surge in donations allowed ActBlue to reach a milestone of $14 billion raised since its establishment two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion to date, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) about the influx of new donors, stating, “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!”
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reported receiving $150 million in new commitments from prominent donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which has established a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, indicated that it raised over $160,000 in just a day.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed,” expressing his support for her candidacy. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also pledged their backing to Harris.
Historically, Biden’s most successful fundraising days stemmed from a significant debate loss against Trump on June 27, which resulted in approximately $28 million raised in the following days. Additionally, Biden amassed $19.2 million shortly after Trump’s conviction on 34 felony charges. In contrast, Trump and his affiliated groups collected $69 million from May 30 to May 31, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. The super PAC aligned with Trump, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump initiatives collected $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden held $281 million in resources, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.