Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats gathered $100 million from contributors through their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This amount was recorded over a 48-hour period, as noted by Ryan Murphy, a developer with The Marshall Project. Although this figure is based on ActBlue’s internal total since its inception in 2004 and isn’t officially disclosed, it offers insights into the group’s fundraising performance, ahead of formal reports.
On Sunday alone, contributions totaled $66.9 million for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. This marked the highest single-day fundraising effort for ActBlue in the upcoming 2024 election cycle. Previously, the second-highest total occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
In light of this donation surge, ActBlue achieved a milestone of raising $14 billion in total funds since its establishment. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform that began in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion to date, according to OpenSecrets.
In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, ActBlue highlighted the influx of new small-dollar donors, emphasizing the excitement of seeing individuals contributing for the first time in the past 24 hours.
Moreover, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from prominent donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris, as reported by Politico. Additionally, Swing Left, which initiated a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee, raised over $160,000 within the same 24-hour period.
Roger Altman, the founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign, asserting it will be “very well financed” and noted backing from major Democratic donors like George and Alex Soros.
Previously, Biden experienced his best fundraising days following his loss to Trump in a June 27 debate, amassing around $28 million in the next day. He also raised $19.2 million in the aftermath of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. In contrast, Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million within a day after his conviction, with the rush of donations temporarily overwhelming his campaign website. Trump’s aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., brought in $70 million that month.
Between April and June, groups supporting Biden raised $332.4 million, while those backing Trump collected $431.2 million. As of late June, Biden had $281 million on hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.