Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats achieved a major fundraising milestone, collecting $100 million from contributors through its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, the political action committee and main fundraising source for Democratic organizations, reported this amount over the past two days, according to a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. While the figure is not formally verified—being based on ActBlue’s donation totals since 2004—it offers an early glimpse into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of upcoming disclosure deadlines.
On Sunday, donors alone contributed $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single-day fundraising effort for the 2024 election cycle through ActBlue. The second highest day for recent contributions occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, as per Murphy’s tracker.
This influx of donations helped ActBlue reach a total of $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, its Republican counterpart established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion during the same timeframe, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue commented on X, formerly known as Twitter, stating, “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!”
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new pledges from significant donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Swing Left, which launched a fund to support the future Democratic nominee, indicated it raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed support for Harris’s campaign, predicting it would be “very well financed.” Additionally, prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have shown their backing for her campaign.
Historically, Biden’s most successful fundraising days have followed moments of challenge, such as after a televised debate with Trump on June 27, when Biden and his committees raised around $28 million over a two-day span, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his associated entities amassed $69 million in the days after, with significant donations momentarily crashing Trump’s campaign website. Trump-aligned PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups collectively raised $332.4 million, in contrast to the $431.2 million raised by pro-Trump factions, The Financial Times reported. By the end of June, Biden reported having $281 million in available resources compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.