Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors through their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue.
According to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, this significant amount was recorded over the past two days. While this figure is not official and is based on ActBlue’s extensive donation tracking since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising performance ahead of any required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions soared to $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the largest fundraising day in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The next highest daily total was recorded on September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
As a result of this donation surge, ActBlue reached a milestone of $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, its Republican counterpart WinRed, which started collecting donations in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion.
ActBlue expressed excitement at the influx of new small-dollar donors, noting that many had made their first donations in the past 24 hours.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, according to Politico. Swing Left announced it raised over $160,000 within 24 hours to support the upcoming Democratic nominee.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, indicated that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and confirmed his support. Notable Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown backing for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s most lucrative fundraising days followed significant events, such as after a televised debate against Donald Trump, where Biden raised around $28 million in a day. He also generated $19.2 million in the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his associates raised $69 million during a similar span, briefly causing a crash on his campaign website.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups totaled $332.4 million in fundraising, compared to pro-Trump groups which raised $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funding available, while Trump had $336.2 million.