Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats successfully raised $100 million from donors through their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This total was reported over a two-day period, according to a live tracker maintained by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While this figure is unofficial, it offers 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 highest single-day fundraising total in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for donations was set on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump participated in their first presidential debate.
This surge in donations propelled ActBlue to a significant milestone, achieving $14 billion in total cash raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the equivalent fundraising platform for Republicans launched in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion to date.
ActBlue noted a surge of first-time donors in the wake of Biden’s announcement, expressing enthusiasm for the growing grassroots support. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in major donor commitments shortly after his announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which established a fund to support the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated that Harris’s campaign is expected to be “very well financed” and openly pledged his support. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also shown their backing for Harris.
Biden has previously experienced notable fundraising spikes; for instance, after his defeat by Trump during a debate on June 27, he and his committees raised approximately $28 million from the day of the debate through June 28, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
Furthermore, Biden raised $19.2 million in the aftermath of Trump being convicted on multiple felony charges. Trump and his affiliated groups raised $69 million from May 30 to May 31, causing a temporary crash of his campaign website due to the influx of donors. His aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., collected $70 million that month.
Between April and June of this year, pro-Biden groups garnered $332.4 million, whereas pro-Trump entities raised $431.2 million, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.