Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, ActBlue collected this considerable amount over two days. Although the figure is not officially verified—being based on ActBlue’s internal records since 2004—it provides insight into their fundraising performance ahead of any official disclosures.
On the Sunday following Biden’s announcement, donors contributed $66.9 million to the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, making it the largest fundraising day in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The next highest day for donations in recent history was September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the surge of donations, ActBlue reached a total of $14 billion raised over the past two decades. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising counterpart established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion.
ActBlue noted the increase in participation, stating that many individuals reported making their first donation in the previous 24 hours. “It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!” the organization stated on X, previously known as Twitter.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, received $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which initiated a fund to support the Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, praised Harris’s campaign on Monday, indicating it would be “very well financed.” Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also publicly supported Harris.
Historically, Biden’s most successful fundraising days occurred after key moments in his campaign, such as following a televised debate on June 27, where he raised about $28 million shortly after being outperformed by Trump. After Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliated groups brought in $69 million in the following days, briefly crashing his campaign website. In total, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million from April to June, while pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.