Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million from supporters through their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This impressive total was obtained in a span of just two days, as reported by a real-time tracker developed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although this figure is not official and is based on ActBlue’s internal tracking since 2004, it offers a glimpse into the fundraising dynamics just weeks before mandatory disclosures are due.
On Sunday alone, contributions soared to $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, making it the largest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The second highest amount recorded was on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The recent surge in donations allowed ActBlue to surpass $14 billion raised in total since its inception two decades ago. Meanwhile, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm over the influx of donations, noting that many contributors reported making their first-ever donations in the past 24 hours, highlighting the growing grassroots movement.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from significant donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which supports the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and offered his support. Prominent Democratic donors, George and Alex Soros, have also shown their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden had notable fundraising success immediately following his loss to former President Donald Trump during a televised debate on June 27, where Biden and his committees collected about $28 million in just two days. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million in a short window surrounding that conviction.
From April to June, pro-Biden initiatives gathered $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in available funds, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.