Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised an impressive $100 million from donors through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform.
According to a live tracker operated by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project, this amount was recorded over a two-day span. While the tally is not official and is based on ActBlue’s data since its inception in 2004, it offers insight into the organization’s fundraising efforts ahead of upcoming disclosures.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the highest fundraising day in the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The previous record was set on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
As a result of Sunday’s fundraising surge, ActBlue reached a significant milestone of $14 billion in total cash raised since its launch two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, the Republican equivalent that started in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue noted on X, formerly Twitter, that many new donors had made their first contributions in the past 24 hours, highlighting a growing grassroots movement.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which began a fund in support of the future Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed his support for Harris, stating her campaign will be “very well financed.” Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also shown their backing for her.
Historically, Biden’s most successful fundraising moments came after he faced off against Trump in a debate on June 27, where he and his committees raised about $28 million in the following days. After Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million in the subsequent days, while Trump and his affiliated groups brought in $69 million from May 30 to May 31, leading to a brief crash of his campaign website. The super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, pro-Biden initiatives collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump efforts garnered $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.