Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats have raised $100 million through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform. This figure was reported over the span of just two days, according to a live tracker from Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project. While the total isn’t officially verified and relies on ActBlue’s historical donation data, it highlights the group’s fundraising success just weeks ahead of any formal disclosures.
On Sunday alone, contributions topped $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign launch, marking the highest single fundraising day in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. Prior to this, the second-largest day for donations was September 30, 2020, coinciding with the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
This surge allowed ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted a substantial influx of first-time donors in the last 24 hours, emphasizing the grassroots momentum being generated. Following Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, the super PAC Future Forward reportedly secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day. Additionally, the group Swing Left announced it raised over $160,000 in just 24 hours to support the eventual Democratic nominee.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, stated on Monday that Harris’s campaign is likely to be well-funded, with support from prominent Democratic donors like George and Alex Soros.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising spikes following major political events. For instance, after a heated debate with Donald Trump on June 27, 2023, Biden’s committees raised approximately $28 million. He also garnered $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on multiple felony charges, while Trump’s campaign recorded $69 million in donations within a day of his conviction, even causing a brief crash of his campaign website.
In the lead-up to the summer of 2023, pro-Biden organizations raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups earned $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million available compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.