One day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million through its primary fundraising platform. ActBlue, a political action committee for Democratic fundraising, reported this significant amount over the past two days, tracked by developer Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. While this figure is not officially published, it gives an insight into the fundraising momentum ahead of formal disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributors donated $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single fundraising day in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previously recorded highest donation day was during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump on September 30, 2020.
With this surge of funding, ActBlue has now raised a total of $14 billion since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, a Republican fundraising alternative launched in late 2019, has amassed around $4.3 billion.
ActBlue noted on its X account that many donors shared that they were contributing for the first time, highlighting the growth of grassroots support. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement endorsing Harris. Swing Left reported raising over $160,000 in the same time frame for supporting the eventual Democratic nominee.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in the financial strength of Harris’s campaign and pledged his support. Major Democratic donors such as George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Historically, Biden’s fundraising spikes have occurred after significant events, including a notable $28 million raised the day after a debate loss to Trump. Following Trump’s recent criminal convictions, he secured $69 million in just two days, causing his campaign website to briefly crash due to the influx of support. In total, from April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump entities gathered $431.2 million, leaving Biden with $281 million compared to Trump’s $336.2 million by the end of June.