Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee dedicated to fundraising for Democratic entities, reported this amount collected over the past two days, based on a live tracker managed by developer Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While these numbers are not official, they offer insight into fundraising activities prior to any mandatory disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions totaling $66.9 million were made to support Vice President Kamala Harris as she launched her presidential campaign, marking the largest single-day fundraising effort in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for single-day donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s data.
This fundraising surge allowed ActBlue to reach $14 billion in total cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising counterpart established in late 2019, has gathered about $4.3 billion since it began operations, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue stated on social media that many first-time donors made contributions in the past 24 hours, highlighting the excitement surrounding new small-dollar donations joining their grassroots efforts.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from significant donors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Additionally, Swing Left, an organization that initiated a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee, indicated it raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and pledged his support. Democratic major donors, such as George and Alex Soros, have also shown their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising soon after being heavily criticized by Trump during a televised debate on June 27, raising approximately $28 million in the following days. He also collected $19.2 million in the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his allied organizations raised $69 million shortly after the conviction on May 30.
From April to June, groups supporting Biden raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump factions garnered $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden’s campaign had $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.