Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party raised an impressive $100 million from donors via its primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker created by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project, ActBlue, a political action committee that serves Democratic organizations, noted that the fundraising occurred within a two-day period. While this total is not officially verified—being based on ActBlue’s own mega-tracker established in 2004—it offers insights into fundraising achievements ahead of any mandatory disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking it the highest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 cycle. The second most significant fundraising day was recorded on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The surge in donations on Sunday helped ActBlue surpass $14 billion in cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican platform that started in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion since it began operations, based on data from OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed excitement in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, stating, “We’ve seen many people 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!”
Additionally, 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 his endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which has initiated a fund supporting the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, announced on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and pledged his support for her candidacy. Major Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown their backing for Harris.
In the past, Biden’s most successful fundraising days followed significant events, such as after he faced a defeat in a debate against Trump on June 27, which resulted in around $28 million raised in just two days. Following Trump’s conviction on multiple felony charges, Biden raised $19.2 million in subsequent days, while Trump and his affiliated groups garnered $69 million from his conviction to the following day. The surge in donations nearly caused a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. Additionally, Trump’s aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups amassed $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.