Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from donors through their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue.
According to Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, this impressive figure was recorded over just two days. Although the total is unofficial—relying on ActBlue’s historical mega-tracker since 2004—it offers insight into the group’s fundraising activities before formal disclosures are filed.
On Sunday alone, contributions to the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign reached $66.9 million, marking the largest single-day fundraising effort for the 2024 election cycle on ActBlue. The previous record for one-day donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, as per Murphy’s tracker.
With the influx of donations from Sunday, ActBlue crossed a significant milestone, amassing $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, its Republican counterpart, WinRed, which began operations in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion.
In a statement released on X, formerly known as Twitter, ActBlue reported a surge of new small-dollar donors, expressing excitement over many individuals making their first-ever donations in the last 24 hours.
Within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors. Additionally, Swing Left, which supports the eventual Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, the founder of Evercore, commented on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also expressed backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden’s notable fundraising days came after a significant debate defeat against Trump on June 27, during which he and his committees raised approximately $28 million in a span of two days. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million in the days afterwards. Conversely, Trump and his allied groups raised $69 million between the day of his conviction, May 30, and May 31, resulting in a brief crash of his campaign website due to the surge in donors. An aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups managed to raise $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $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.