Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats secured $100 million from donors through their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This amount was recorded over the previous two days, according to a tracker developed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. While the figure is not official and relies on ActBlue’s extensive donation records since 2004, it offers insight into the organization’s fundraising just weeks before formal disclosures are due.
On Sunday alone, contributions reached $66.9 million in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, setting a new record for ActBlue’s 2024 fundraising efforts. This surpassed the previous high day for donations, which occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
As a result of this influx of donations on Sunday, ActBlue has achieved a total of $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has amassed approximately $4.3 billion according to data from OpenSecrets.
ActBlue stated on X, formerly Twitter, that they received numerous messages from first-time donors in the past 24 hours, expressing the excitement of new contributions to the grassroots movement.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new major donor commitments within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which has initiated a fund backing the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign, stating it will be “very well financed,” and affirmed his support. Notable Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also expressed backing for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s most significant fundraising days occurred after substantial events, such as following his defeat in a debate against Donald Trump on June 27, where he and his committees raised around $28 million within 24 hours. In the wake of Trump’s recent conviction on multiple felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and associated groups raised $69 million from May 30 to May 31, causing a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. The aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden’s campaign had $281 million in funds, compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.