Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from donors through its primary fundraising platform, ActBlue.
According to a tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, this amount was recorded over the past two days. While this figure is not official and comes from ActBlue’s own records dating back to 2004, it offers insights into the group’s fundraising activities ahead of mandatory disclosures.
On Sunday, alone, donations amounted to an impressive $66.9 million to kick-start Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous high was set on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With this latest boost in donations, ActBlue has now raised a total of $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, its Republican counterpart, WinRed, which launched in late 2019, has collected about $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm on social media, noting a surge in first-time donors. “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!” they stated.
Meanwhile, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major supporters within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Swing Left, which supports the eventual Democratic candidate, also mentioned raising over $160,000 in the same time frame.
Evercore founder Roger Altman commented that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and expressed his support. Democratic billionaire benefactors George and Alex Soros have also pledged their backing to Harris.
Biden’s previous fundraising peaks occurred immediately after challenging debates with Trump, including $28 million raised shortly after a televised debate on June 27. Additionally, Biden raised $19.2 million in the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. In a significant response, Trump and his affiliated groups amassed $69 million in just two days following his conviction.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.