One day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million through their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This significant amount was recorded over just two days, as indicated by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, who tracks donation data.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest fundraising day for the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. For context, the previous record for daily contributions was observed on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate featuring Biden and Trump.
Following Sunday’s surge, ActBlue reached a milestone of $14 billion raised over its two decades of operation. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising counterpart, has accumulated approximately $4.3 billion since its inception in late 2019.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm about the influx of donations, stating that many contributors were making their first donations. “It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!” they noted in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
In addition to ActBlue’s success, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day of the announcement of Biden’s endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, created to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated that he expects Harris’s campaign to be “very well financed” and confirmed his support for her. Notably, prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown their backing for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s fundraising efforts have seen considerable boosts after critical moments, such as the aftermath of a debate against Trump on June 27, which netted his campaign around $28 million in just 24 hours. Additionally, Biden raised $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his affiliated groups garnered $69 million within the same timeframe, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. Overall, from April to June, pro-Biden groups amassed $332.4 million, compared to $431.2 million for pro-Trump groups, with Biden concluding June with $281 million available versus Trump’s $336.2 million.