Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors through their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic initiatives, reported this amount over the previous two days, according to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. While not an official figure, this tally is based on ActBlue’s long-term donation records since 2004, offering insight into fundraising just weeks before formal disclosures are required.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, making it the largest single fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The second largest day for donations in recent history was on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, as noted by Murphy’s tracker.
Thanks to the strong donation surge on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, its Republican counterpart WinRed, which began operations in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion since its launch.
ActBlue released a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, highlighting the significant number of individuals making their first donations in the past 24 hours and expressing excitement about the growth of small-dollar donors in the grassroots movement.
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, according to Politico. Swing Left, which set up a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in just 24 hours.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, declared on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and pledged support for her candidacy. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s most successful fundraising days occurred after he experienced a significant debate defeat against Donald Trump on June 27, when he raised approximately $28 million overnight. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million. Conversely, Trump and his associated groups garnered $69 million within two days post-conviction, briefly overwhelming his campaign website. During the same period, the super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.