Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not pursue re-election, Democrats raised an impressive $100 million from donors through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform.
The figure was logged over a 48-hour period, as reported by Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, based on ActBlue’s extensive donation tracker since its inception in 2004. While not officially confirmed, the data offers a glimpse of the fundraising momentum just weeks ahead of mandatory financial disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions amounted to $66.9 million, primarily for the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the most successful fundraising day in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. This surpassed previous bests, including a notable day on September 30, 2020, when Biden and Trump faced off in their first debate.
With this influx of support, ActBlue has now raised a total of $14 billion since its establishment two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, its counterpart for Republican fundraising, has raised approximately $4.3 billion since it launched in late 2019.
ActBlue noted a significant increase in first-time donations in the last day, expressing enthusiasm about new small-dollar contributors joining the grassroots movement.
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new pledges from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which initiated a fund supporting the eventual Democratic nominee, reported over $160,000 raised in that same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and affirmed his support. Prominent Democratic donors, George and Alex Soros, have also thrown their backing behind Harris.
Previously, Biden’s strongest fundraising days occurred immediately following a televised debate with Donald Trump, where he raised about $28 million in just two days. After the former president’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden pulled in $19.2 million, while Trump and his supporters collectively raised $69 million during the same period.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups amassed $332.4 million, compared to $431.2 million for pro-Trump groups. By the end of June, Biden reported $281 million in funds available, while Trump had $336.2 million.