Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors via ActBlue, the primary fundraising platform for Democratic organizations.
According to a live tracker from Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project, ActBlue collected this amount over two days, although this tally is unofficial and stems from the platform’s overall donation history dating back to 2004. It offers insights into fundraising efforts ahead of required financial disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions totaled $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest fundraising day for the 2024 election cycle on ActBlue. The second highest fundraising day was recorded on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
This surge in donations allowed ActBlue to reach a total of $14 billion raised since its inception. Meanwhile, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion during the same period.
ActBlue noted a significant influx of first-time donors, stating it was encouraging to witness new small-dollar contributors join the grassroots effort.
Following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from major benefactors in just 24 hours. Additionally, Swing Left, which supports the eventual Democratic nominee, announced it raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed confidence that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and confirmed his support. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also pledged their backing to Harris.
Historically, Biden’s fundraising spikes have often correlated with significant political events, such as when he raised about $28 million immediately after being defeated by Trump during a debate in June 2020. Following Trump’s conviction on multiple felony counts, Biden garnered $19.2 million in donations, while Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million in just two days, causing a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. An associated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million during that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups accumulated $332.4 million, while their pro-Trump counterparts garnered $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in his campaign account, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.