A day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from donors through their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This amount was reported by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, via a live tracker, although it is not officially verified and is based on ActBlue’s compilation of donations since its inception in 2004.
On Sunday alone, the fundraising platform saw $66.9 million contributed to Vice President Kamala Harris’s newly launched presidential campaign, representing the most significant single-day fundraising effort for the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous high for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the boost from Sunday’s donations, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its establishment two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that began operations in late 2019, has raised about $4.3 billion to date, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted on social media that there had been a considerable influx of first-time donors in the last 24 hours, which it described as encouraging for the grassroots movement. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reported gaining $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Another group, Swing Left, indicated it raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed confidence that Harris’s campaign would be well-funded and has pledged his support. Democratic heavyweights George and Alex Soros have also endorsed Harris.
Historically, Biden’s fundraising efforts have surged following notable events, including a $28 million increase after being defeated by Trump during a debate on June 27, and a total of $19.2 million raised in the days following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign and related groups raised $69 million in the days surrounding his conviction, leading to temporary issues with Trump’s campaign website due to the influx of donors. In the months leading up to June, pro-Biden entities collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups brought in $431.2 million, leaving Biden with $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million by the end of June.