Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats generated $100 million from donors through their primary fundraising platform. ActBlue, a political action committee serving Democratic organizations, recorded this amount over the past two days, as noted by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While this tally is unofficial—sourced from ActBlue’s own mega-tracker since 2004—it offers a preview of fundraising performance ahead of formal disclosures.
On Sunday alone, $66.9 million was contributed to launch Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single fundraising day in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The second-highest fundraising day in recent history occurred on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
ActBlue’s surge of donations on Sunday pushed its total cash raised to $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican counterpart established in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
“We’ve seen a significant number of people reporting their first-ever donations in the last 24 hours!” said ActBlue in a statement on social media. “It’s incredibly motivating to witness new small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement!”
Furthermore, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from prominent donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which started a fund to support the ultimate Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and confirmed his support. Major Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also pledged their backing to Harris.
Historically, Biden’s most successful fundraising periods occurred immediately after being outperformed by Trump during a televised debate on June 27, with Biden and his committees raising about $28 million from that day to June 28. Additionally, Biden collected $19.2 million in the days following Trump’s conviction on multiple felony counts. Conversely, Trump and his affiliated organizations amassed $69 million from May 30 to May 31, which briefly crashed his campaign website. The super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.