Just a day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party raised $100 million from donors through its primary fundraising platform, ActBlue. This amount was collected over just two days, as reported by Ryan Murphy, a developer from The Marshall Project. Although the tally is unofficial, it reflects the significant fundraising results of ActBlue, which has been tracking donations since 2004.
On Sunday alone, contributions totaled $66.9 million following the kickoff of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest single-day fundraising event for the 2024 cycle for ActBlue. The previous record for donations in recent history occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
With the influx of donations on Sunday, ActBlue reached a milestone of $14 billion raised since its inception two decades ago. In contrast, WinRed, a Republican fundraising platform that commenced operations in late 2019, has raised approximately $4.3 billion.
ActBlue shared on X, formerly Twitter, that many donors claimed this was their first-ever contribution, emphasizing the growing grassroots support for the movement. Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, brought in $150 million from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, a group set up to support the eventual Democratic nominee, also reported raising over $160,000 within the same time frame.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, expressed confidence that Harris’s campaign would be well-funded and pledged his support. Major Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also backed Harris.
Previously, Biden experienced significant fundraising spikes following key moments, including a $28 million raise after a debate loss to Trump on June 27, and another $19.2 million following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. Trump’s fundraising efforts during this period were also notable, with his campaign website briefly crashing due to a surge of donations after his conviction.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump groups garnered $431.2 million. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million remaining compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.