Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors using their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue.
According to a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project, the impressive amount was recorded in the past two days. While this figure is unofficial and comes from ActBlue’s own donation tracking since its inception in 2004, it provides valuable insight into the group’s fundraising performance before formal disclosures are required.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, making it the highest fundraising day 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, as noted by Murphy.
The surge in donations propelled ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since it was established two decades ago. In contrast, its Republican counterpart WinRed, which started in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion so far.
ActBlue announced on social media that many donors reported making their first-ever contributions within the last 24 hours, expressing encouragement about the influx of new small-dollar supporters joining the grassroots movement.
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major contributors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement endorsing Harris. Swing Left, an organization dedicated to supporting the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, pledged his support for Harris’s campaign, which he anticipates will be “very well financed.” Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also come out in support of Harris.
Biden’s previous notable fundraising efforts were recorded following a debate loss to Trump on June 27, when he and his affiliated committees collected around $28 million within a day. Additionally, after Trump faced 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million shortly afterward, while Trump and his associated organizations garnered $69 million within the same timeframe, causing a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. The aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised a total of $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump groups amassed $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.