Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party raised an impressive $100 million from donors via its primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This figure was recorded over the last two days, according to a tracker managed by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. While this total is unofficial and stems from ActBlue’s extensive tracking of donations since 2004, it highlights the group’s fundraising progress ahead of any formal disclosures.
On Sunday alone, supporters contributed $66.9 million to kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the most successful fundraising day of the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous high for donations was recorded on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced off in their first presidential debate, according to Murphy’s tracker.
The significant influx of donations on Sunday brought ActBlue’s total cash raised to $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, the Republican donation platform WinRed, which began in late 2019, has collected approximately $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, the influx of new small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement, stating, “We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first ever donation in the last 24 hours!”
Additionally, the Biden-associated super PAC Future Forward reported raising $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, as noted by Politico. Swing Left, an organization that established a fund to support the Democratic nominee, shared with Agence France-Presse that it gathered more than $160,000 in the same timeframe.
On Monday, Evercore founder Roger Altman expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign, stating it would be “very well financed” and confirmed his backing. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also thrown their support behind her.
Historically, Biden’s most successful fundraising days occurred directly after significant events, such as a televised debate where he faced Trump’s criticism on June 27, raising around $28 million shortly thereafter, according to a New York Times analysis. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million in the following days. Meanwhile, Trump and supporting groups raised $69 million in the 24 hours following his conviction on May 30, which caused a temporary crash on his campaign website. The affiliated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups secured $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups accumulated $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden held $281 million in cash, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.