In a remarkable fundraising effort, Democrats collected $100 million from donors through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform, just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election. This amount was documented over the last two days by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, using ActBlue’s extensive donation tracker.
On Sunday alone, Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign attracted $66.9 million in donations, marking the most successful fundraising day in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. This event overshadowed a notable previous fundraising spike, which occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
This surge pushed ActBlue’s total cash raised to $14 billion since its inception. Meanwhile, WinRed, the Republican counterpart launched in late 2019, has accumulated around $4.3 billion in donations.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm about the influx of new small-dollar donors, noting that many reported making their first donation in the hours following Biden’s announcement. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major contributors within the first 24 hours after Biden’s declaration, while Swing Left raised over $160,000 during the same timeframe.
Evercore founder Roger Altman affirmed that Harris’s campaign would be well-funded and pledged his support. High-profile Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown their backing for her candidacy.
Historically, Biden’s major fundraising surges followed significant political events, including a robust $28 million raised after a June 2020 debate defeat and $19.2 million raised after Trump’s felony conviction earlier this year. In contrast, Trump and his affiliates raised $69 million in just two days following his conviction, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. Overall, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million between April and June, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, leaving Biden with $281 million compared to Trump’s $336.2 million by the end of June.