In the wake of President Joe Biden’s announcement that he will not pursue re-election, the Democratic Party raised an impressive $100 million from donors through ActBlue, its primary fundraising platform. This amount was recorded over just two days, according to a tracker developed by Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project. While this figure is based on ActBlue’s own compilation of data since 2004 and is not official, it offers insight into the party’s fundraising momentum ahead of the upcoming disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to launch Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking a milestone as the largest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle on ActBlue. The previous high was recorded on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With Sunday’s surge, ActBlue’s total funds raised since its inception two decades ago reached $14 billion. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform established in late 2019, has garnered about $4.3 billion.
ActBlue announced that many individuals made their first-ever donations in the past 24 hours, expressing excitement over seeing new small-dollar donors join their grassroots efforts. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and Harris’s endorsement. Swing Left, which backs the eventual Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that he believes Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her candidacy. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also endorsed Harris.
Historically, Biden’s strongest fundraising days occurred following notable events, such as directly after a debate loss to Trump on June 27, when he and his committees raised around $28 million. Biden also raised $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his affiliates brought in $69 million within the same period, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website. In May, a super PAC aligned with Trump raised $70 million.
From April to June, groups supportive of Biden raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.