Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he will not seek re-election, Democrats have raised $100 million from donors through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform. According to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project, this amount was accumulated over the past two days. While these figures are not official and are based on ActBlue’s records since 2004, they offer a preview of the group’s fundraising performance ahead of upcoming disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, setting a record for fundraising in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Thanks to this surge in donations, ActBlue has now raised a total of $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion.
In a statement posted on X, previously known as Twitter, ActBlue expressed enthusiasm over a notable increase in new 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!”
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reported securing $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Another group, Swing Left, informed Agence France-Presse that it raised over $160,000 within 24 hours.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and has pledged his support. Notable Democratic donors George and Alex Soros are also backing Harris.
In the past, Biden has experienced significant fundraising spikes following impactful events, such as the debate loss to Trump on June 27, which generated approximately $28 million in just two days. Additionally, Biden raised $19.2 million after Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million between May 30 and May 31, leading to a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. A related super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million 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 funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.