Just a day after President Joe Biden announced that he would not run for re-election, Democrats managed to raise $100 million from donors via their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue.
According to Ryan Murphy, a developer at The Marshall Project, the sizable amount was recorded over two days. Although this figure is not official and relies on ActBlue’s extensive donation tracker, it offers insight into the fundraising success ahead of formal disclosures. On Sunday alone, contributions reached $66.9 million for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, making it the highest single-day fundraising total for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. The previously recorded second-best day for donations was during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump on September 30, 2020.
With the uptick in donations on Sunday, ActBlue surpassed $14 billion in total funds raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, its Republican counterpart, WinRed, has amassed approximately $4.3 billion since its establishment in late 2019.
In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, ActBlue noted that many individuals indicated they made their first-ever donations in the last 24 hours, highlighting the engagement of new small-dollar supporters in the grassroots movement.
Additionally, the super PAC Future Forward, which supports Biden, reportedly received $150 million in new commitments from major donors shortly after Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which initiated a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee, stated it raised over $160,000 within the same time frame.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence in Harris’s campaign finances, describing it as “very well financed,” and noted support from prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros.
Historically, Biden’s fundraising peaked after key events during the campaign cycle. After facing off against Trump in a debate on June 27, Biden and his affiliated committees raised about $28 million within 24 hours. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his supporters garnered $69 million from May 30 to 31. Trump’s campaign website briefly crashed due to the influx of donations during that period. In May of that same year, a super PAC supporting Trump raised $70 million.
From April to June, pro-Biden organizations collected $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups brought in $431.2 million, leading to a funding balance of $281 million for Biden compared to Trump’s $336.2 million by the end of June.