Days after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats raised $100 million through their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This significant amount was reported over a two-day period according to a live tracker by Ryan Murphy, a developer for The Marshall Project. While the figure is unofficial and based on ActBlue’s donation tracking since 2004, it reflects a surge in fundraising just weeks before required disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions totaled $66.9 million in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 cycle on ActBlue. The previous peak occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
The recent donations helped ActBlue surpass $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising counterpart that emerged in late 2019, has collected approximately $4.3 billion, as reported by OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed excitement over the influx of contributions, highlighting many first-time donors who joined the grassroots movement. Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement endorsing Harris. Additionally, Swing Left announced it raised over $160,000 shortly after the announcement.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, commented that Harris’s campaign will be well-financed and indicated his support. Notable Democratic financiers George and Alex Soros also endorsed Harris.
In prior fundraising attempts, Biden saw significant results following his defeat during a televised debate against Trump on June 27, raising around $28 million in the immediate aftermath. Biden collected $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, while Trump and his affiliated groups garnered $69 million from May 30 to May 31, leading to website outages due to the surge in donations. Notably, Trump-aligned super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups collected $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.