Following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would not run for re-election, Democrats experienced a significant increase in fundraising, collecting $100 million through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform, over just two days.
This substantial amount was noted on a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project, although it remains unofficial as it relies on ActBlue’s self-reported total donations since its inception in 2004. The latest figures reveal a powerful fundraising momentum just weeks ahead of mandatory financial disclosures.
On Sunday, alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to Vice President Kamala Harris’s newly launched presidential campaign, marking the most successful fundraising day so far in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. Previous high points included the day of the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump on September 30, 2020, when donations surged.
This recent influx of donations pushed ActBlue’s total fundraising since its establishment to $14 billion. In contrast, its Republican counterpart WinRed, which started in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed excitement about the influx of new small-dollar donors, noting many had made their first donation in the past day. In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments within 24 hours of his announcement endorsing Harris, while the organization Swing Left raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Evercore founder Roger Altman stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign is expected to be well-funded and revealed his support. Prominent Democratic donors such as George and Alex Soros have also pledged their backing to Harris.
Previously, Biden’s most effective fundraising days were observed immediately after his debate loss to Trump on June 27, which generated approximately $28 million in contributions in two days. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and related groups amassed $69 million in the 24 hours following the conviction. In May 2023, Trump’s aligned super PAC raised $70 million.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups gathered $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden’s campaign had $281 million in available funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.