Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats garnered $100 million from donors via ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform. The substantial amount was raised over a mere two days, as reported by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, who tracks the donations.
On Sunday, donors contributed an impressive $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest fundraising day of the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous high for donations occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
Thanks to this surge, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total cash raised since its inception two decades ago, while its Republican counterpart, WinRed, has accumulated around $4.3 billion since launching in late 2019, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted an increase in first-time donors in the 24 hours following Biden’s announcement. “It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!” they stated on X, formerly Twitter.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, received $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden endorsed Harris. Meanwhile, Swing Left announced it raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and pledged his support. Major Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also endorsed Harris.
Historically, Biden’s fundraising peaked following a televised debate loss to Trump, raising approximately $28 million within two days in late June, after which Biden’s groups collected $332.4 million from April to June, compared to $431.2 million raised by pro-Trump groups during the same period. As of the end of June, Biden had $281 million, while Trump held $336.2 million on hand.