Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party secured $100 million from donors through ActBlue, its primary fundraising platform.
ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic organizations, reported this impressive fundraising achievement over the past two days, as noted by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While this figure is not officially verified—being derived from ActBlue’s donation tracker that dates back to 2004—it offers valuable insight into the group’s fundraising efforts ahead of formal disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions reached $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, setting a record for the highest one-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle via ActBlue. The previous high occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
This significant influx of donations on Sunday enabled ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican donation platform that started in late 2019, has gathered about $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue expressed enthusiasm on social media, noting a surge of first-time donors contributing in the last 24 hours, calling it inspiring to see new small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement.
Following Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, reportedly received $150 million in new commitments from key donors within the first 24 hours. Additionally, Swing Left, which supports the future Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, indicated that Harris’s campaign will be well-financed, having offered his support. Prominent Democratic donors like George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced his most notable fundraising days immediately after a televised debate defeat against Trump on June 27, where he raised approximately $28 million in just two days. After Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts, Biden accumulated $19.2 million in subsequent days, while Trump and his affiliates raised $69 million within a day following the conviction, briefly crashing Trump’s campaign website. The related super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million during that month.
Between April and June, Biden-supporting groups raised $332.4 million, while those backing Trump collected $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.