Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, the Democratic Party secured $100 million in donations through its primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This was reported via a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. Although the figure is not officially validated, it offers insight into the fundraising achievements ahead of any formal disclosure.
On Sunday alone, contributors donated $66.9 million to the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest fundraising day so far in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for daily donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
As a result of the donation surge on Sunday, ActBlue reached $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising counterpart launched in late 2019, has gathered approximately $4.3 billion during its operation, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue stated Monday afternoon on X, formerly Twitter, that many new donors reported making their first-ever contributions in the past 24 hours, reflecting a growing grassroots movement.
In the wake of Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, received $150 million in new commitments from high-profile donors within a single day, as reported by Politico. Additionally, Swing Left, which has initiated support for the eventual Democratic nominee, claimed to have raised over $160,000 within 24 hours.
Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed confidence that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and has voiced his support. High-profile Democratic supporters, including George and Alex Soros, have also pledged backing to Harris.
Biden previously experienced significant fundraising success shortly after a televised debate on June 27, when he raised about $28 million in the days following a defeat by Trump. He also garnered $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony charges, whereas Trump and his affiliated groups amassed $69 million between May 30 and May 31 alone. This influx of donations caused Trump’s campaign website to briefly crash. An associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that same month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in available funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.