Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform. ActBlue, a political action committee serving Democratic organizations, reported this amount over a span of two days, according to a live tracking system managed by Ryan Murphy of The Marshall Project. Although these figures are unofficial and derived from ActBlue’s ongoing tracker of donations since 2004, they give insight into fundraising activities ahead of mandatory disclosure deadlines.
On Sunday alone, donors contributed $66.9 million to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the most successful fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The second-highest fundraising day in recent history occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, according to Murphy’s tracking.
The spike in donations propelled ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, its Republican counterpart, WinRed, which started in late 2019, has collected approximately $4.3 billion in donations, as reported by OpenSecrets.
ActBlue stated on X, previously known as Twitter, that “so many folks” reported making their first donations in the last 24 hours, highlighting the invigorating impact of new small-dollar donors joining their grassroots efforts.
Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and his endorsement of Harris, according to Politico. Additionally, Swing Left, which initiated a fund to back the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed his belief on Monday that Harris’s campaign will be “very well financed” and confirmed his support for her candidacy. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also pledged their backing to Harris.
Historically, Biden’s fundraising peaks occurred immediately after a notable defeat to Trump during a televised debate on June 27, when Biden and his committees raised around $28 million between that date and June 28, as analyzed by the New York Times.
Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million in the days that followed, while Trump and his affiliates garnered $69 million from May 30 to May 31, prompting a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. His affiliated super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million that month.
Between April and June, groups supporting Biden collected $332.4 million, while those backing Trump raised $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in available funds compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.