Following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform, within just two days. This impressive sum was reported via a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project, though it is not an official figure as it is based on ActBlue’s calculations since its inception in 2004.
On the previous Sunday, contributions totaled $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s newly launched presidential campaign, marking the most significant fundraising day for the 2024 election cycle on ActBlue. The second-largest fundraising day recorded was during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump on September 30, 2020.
With the recent influx of donations, ActBlue has surpassed a milestone of $14 billion raised over the past 20 years. In comparison, its Republican counterpart, WinRed, which started fundraising in late 2019, has accumulated roughly $4.3 billion.
ActBlue commented on social media that many first-time donors have emerged in the last 24 hours, highlighting a surge in grassroots support. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments shortly following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Similarly, the organization Swing Left reported raising over $160,000 within 24 hours.
Roger Altman, the founder of Evercore, indicated that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and pledged his support. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also thrown their support behind Harris.
Historically, Biden’s strongest fundraising days have occurred following significant political events, such as after his debate loss to Trump on June 27, when he and his committees raised approximately $28 million. Biden also raised $19.2 million after Trump was convicted on multiple felony charges this past May, during which time Trump’s campaign saw an influx of donations that briefly crashed their website. In total, between April and June, pro-Biden groups collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million while Trump had $336.2 million in available funds.