Following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not run for re-election, Democrats have successfully raised $100 million from donors in just two days through ActBlue, a primary fundraising platform for Democratic organizations.
This substantial fundraising effort was reported by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, who maintains a live tracker of donations. Although these figures are not official and are derived from ActBlue’s own extensive tracking since its inception in 2004, they provide an early glimpse into the group’s fundraising successes before any formal disclosures are made.
On the day of Biden’s announcement, donors contributed an impressive $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, making it the largest single-day fundraising event for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. This surpassed the previous notable fundraising day on September 30, 2020, which coincided with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s tracker.
With this latest surge in donations, ActBlue celebrated reaching $14 billion raised since its founding two decades ago. In contrast, its Republican counterpart, WinRed, which was established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion to date.
ActBlue expressed excitement over the influx of new supporters, noting that many individuals reported making their first-ever donations within hours of Biden’s announcement. Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million from major donors shortly after his announcement and endorsement of Harris. Additionally, the organization Swing Left reported raising over $160,000 within 24 hours to support the eventual Democratic nominee.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, indicated on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be robustly financed and confirmed his support for her candidacy. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also pledged their backing to Harris.
In prior fundraising efforts, Biden raised approximately $28 million in the immediate aftermath of a significant debate loss to Trump on June 27, 2020, and $19.2 million following Trump’s indictment on 34 felony counts. Trump’s campaign notably received $69 million within a day of his conviction, resulting in momentary website outages due to the influx of donors. In total, between April and June, pro-Biden groups amassed $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million, according to reports. At the end of June, Biden’s campaign had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.