Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue.
The funds were gathered over two days, according to a live tracker created by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. Although this figure is not officially recognized—being based on ActBlue’s own extensive donation data since 2004—it offers insights into the group’s fundraising progress ahead of any mandatory disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors provided $66.9 million to promote Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous record was set on September 30, 2020, during the first debate between Biden and Trump.
This influx of donations brought ActBlue’s cumulative total to $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, its Republican equivalent which started in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed excitement about the recent surge, noting a significant number of first-time donors had contributed over the past 24 hours, calling it a strong motivator for grassroots support.
Following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, received $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day, as reported by Politico. Additionally, Swing Left, which initiated a fund for the forthcoming Democratic nominee, indicated it raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and confirmed his support. Prominent Democratic donors, such as George and Alex Soros, have also expressed their backing for her campaign.
Previously, Biden had notable fundraising success immediately following his defeat by Trump in a televised debate on June 27, where his campaign raised around $28 million in the following days. Subsequent events saw Biden raise $19.2 million after Trump was indicted on 34 felony counts. Trump and his affiliated organizations raised $69 million in the day following his indictment, with an aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., collecting $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.