Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, the Democratic Party successfully raised $100 million through its primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This figure, recorded over the past two days according to a live tracker by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project, is not yet official as it is based on ActBlue’s extensive donation data since 2004 but indicates a strong fundraising response ahead of scheduled disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donations reached an impressive $66.9 million following the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle via ActBlue. This surpassed the previous high from September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced off in their first presidential debate.
The influx of contributions on Sunday enabled ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has collected around $4.3 billion to date, as reported by OpenSecrets.
ActBlue announced on social media that many individuals reported making their first-ever donations in the last 24 hours, highlighting a surge in grassroots support. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, garnered $150 million in new commitments from major donors following Biden’s announcement and Harris’s endorsement. Swing Left, which supports the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same time frame.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and has pledged his support. Notable Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also committed their backing to Harris.
Historically, Biden has seen notable fundraising boosts after key events, including a reported $28 million raised right after a televised debate loss to Trump on June 27. In the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on multiple felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump’s campaign and associated groups saw significant contributions as well, briefly crashing his campaign’s website due to high traffic.
The latest analysis indicates that from April to June, pro-Biden organizations accumulated $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in available funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.