Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker created by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project, this figure was amassed over just two days. While still unofficial, the tally is derived from ActBlue’s comprehensive record of total donations since its inception in 2004, giving insight into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions reached $66.9 million for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking a record fundraising day in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for a recent day of donations was September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s tracker.
This spike in donations brought ActBlue’s total fundraising to $14 billion since its launch two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, a Republican fundraising platform that started in late 2019, has garnered approximately $4.3 billion since it began operations, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue highlighted the excitement among new donors, stating, “We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first ever donation in the last 24 hours! It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
Additionally, Future Forward, a pro-Biden super PAC, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left announced it raised over $160,000 in support of the eventual Democratic nominee within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign, anticipating it to be “very well financed” and noted his support. Prominent Democratic donors, George and Alex Soros, have also thrown their support behind Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced a fundraising surge after a debate loss to Trump on June 27, raising approximately $28 million within a day. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden collected $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliates pulled in $69 million from the day of his conviction to the following day, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. The associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
In the period between April and June, support for Biden amounted to $332.4 million, contrasting with $431.2 million for Trump. As of the end of June, Biden had $281 million in hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.