Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million through ActBlue, its primary fundraising platform. This amount was recorded over the past two days, based on data from Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While this tally is not official, it represents a snapshot of fundraising efforts ahead of scheduled disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to launch Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking a historic high for fundraising in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The previous peak in recent memory occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Following the surge in donations, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception nearly twenty years ago. In comparison, its Republican counterpart, WinRed, which started in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue celebrated the influx of new donors, stating, “We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first ever donation in the last 24 hours! It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reported $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of his announcement and subsequent support for Harris. Another group, Swing Left, announced it raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
On Monday, Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign financing and pledged his support. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising days following a debate defeat by Trump on June 27, raising about $28 million from that date until June 28, as noted by a New York Times analysis. Biden also raised $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his affiliated groups amassed $69 million from May 30 to May 31. This rush of donations temporarily overwhelmed Trump’s campaign website, and his aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised an additional $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups collected $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.