Just a day after President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a prominent political action committee and fundraising platform for Democratic organizations, recorded this funding surge over the past two days, as tracked by Ryan Murphy, a developer for The Marshall Project. Although this figure is unofficial — derived from ActBlue’s own comprehensive donation tracker established in 2004 — it offers insight into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors gave $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single-day fundraising total for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previous record for a significant fundraising day was on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s tracker.
This influx of donations on Sunday propelled ActBlue’s total cash raised to $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, its Republican counterpart launched in late 2019, has amassed approximately $4.3 billion in donations, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted on X, formerly Twitter, that many individuals reported making their first-ever donations in the last 24 hours, expressing enthusiasm about the influx of new small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, attracted $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 initiated a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within a similar timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, commented on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and pledged his support. Influential Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also endorsed Harris.
Previously, Biden’s strongest fundraising days occurred after he faced off against former President Donald Trump in a televised debate on June 27, during which Biden raised about $28 million in just two days, as per a New York Times analysis.
Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million in the days that followed. Trump and his affiliated groups generated $69 million from May 30 to May 31 after his conviction, temporarily crashing his campaign website due to the sudden spike in donations. An aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million during that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funding compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.