Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform. This amount was recorded over a two-day span, as per a live tracker maintained by developer Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While this total is not officially verified, it reflects the fundraising activities of the group ahead of required disclosures that will follow.
On Sunday alone, donations soared to $66.9 million marking the largest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 cycle for ActBlue, largely driven by the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. The only other significant fundraising day was during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump on September 30, 2020.
This surge in donations also helped ActBlue surpass $14 billion in total cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican counterpart that began operation in late 2019, has collected around $4.3 billion.
ActBlue reported on social media that many donors indicated they made their first-ever contributions in the past 24 hours, highlighting a growing grassroots movement among new small-dollar donors.
Following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, the pro-Biden super PAC Future Forward garnered $150 million from major donors within just 24 hours. Additionally, Swing Left, which is focused on supporting the Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed his confidence in Harris’s campaign being well-funded and pledged his support. Notable Democratic mega-donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown backing for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s most successful fundraising days have followed strong reactions to debates, such as after a televised debate with Trump on June 27, where Biden’s committees raised approximately $28 million within a day. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million over the next few days, compared to Trump and his affiliates, who raised $69 million in a single day following his conviction on May 30. The influx of donations even caused a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website, with the aligned super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raising $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, leaving Biden with $281 million in cash compared to Trump’s $336.2 million by the end of June.