Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million from donors through ActBlue, a prominent fundraising platform for Democratic organizations.
According to a live tracker managed by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project, this total was recorded in a span of just two days. While the figure is unofficial and based on ActBlue’s extensive donation tracking since 2004, it highlights the group’s fundraising success ahead of any required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions reached $66.9 million to kickstart Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. This surpassed the previous record set on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The surge in donations allowed ActBlue to reach a milestone of $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican counterpart established in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, ActBlue highlighted the influx of new donors, stating, “We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first ever donation in the last 24 hours! It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris. Swing Left also reported raising over $160,000 in the same time frame.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed his support for Harris’s campaign, noting it would be “very well financed.” Prominent Democratic donors like George and Alex Soros have also shown their support for her.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising spikes after defeats during televised debates, notably raising about $28 million following a debate against Trump on June 27. He also garnered $19.2 million in the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump’s associated groups raised a substantial $69 million in that timeframe, momentarily crashing his campaign website.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups collected a total of $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups raised $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in reserves compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.