Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, the Democratic Party raised an impressive $100 million from donors through ActBlue, its primary fundraising platform.
According to Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, this total was recorded over the past two days via a live tracker, although the numbers are not official and are based on ActBlue’s own cumulative donation tracker established in 2004. This surge in funds comes just weeks before any mandatory financial disclosures are due.
On Sunday, contributions to the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign alone reached $66.9 million, marking the largest fundraising day in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. Previously, the closest day in terms of donations was September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The influx of donations allowed ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican donation platform launched in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue stated on X, formerly Twitter, that they had seen a significant number of first-time donors contributing in the last 24 hours, highlighting the growing grassroots movement. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, received $150 million in new commitments from major donors following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, a group supporting the eventual Democratic nominee, also reported raising over $160,000 within 24 hours.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed strong support for Harris’s campaign, forecasting it will be “very well financed.” The campaign has also received backing from prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros.
Previously, Biden had seen substantial fundraising success directly after a vigorous debate defeat against Trump on June 27, raising about $28 million in the following days. Biden also garnered $19.2 million after Trump faced 34 felony counts. Following Trump’s conviction on May 30, Trump and his aligned groups raised $69 million within a day, leading to brief crashes on his campaign website. Additionally, the PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, groups supporting Biden raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups amassed $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.