Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, Democratic donors contributed $100 million through the primary fundraising platform ActBlue. This amount was recorded over a two-day period, according to Ryan Murphy, a developer with The Marshall Project, who tracks donation totals. Although this tally is not official, as it is based on ActBlue’s ongoing donation tracker since its inception in 2004, it offers insight into fundraising trends ahead of formal disclosure deadlines.
On Sunday, a significant $66.9 million was raised for the kickoff of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, marking the largest fundraising day for ActBlue in the 2024 election cycle. This surpassed the previous record set during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump on September 30, 2020.
This surge in donations propelled ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since its founding. In comparison, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in late 2019, has raised around $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue reported a notable influx of new donors, stating, “We’ve seen so many folks saying they made their first ever donation in the last 24 hours! It’s so motivating to see new small-dollar donors join the grassroots movement!”
The super PAC Future Forward, aligned with Biden, reportedly secured $150 million in commitments from major donors within a day of the announcement, while Swing Left, which supports the eventual Democratic nominee, indicated it raised over $160,000 in the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, emphasized that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and expressed his support for her. Prominent Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also thrown their backing behind Harris.
Previously, Biden’s fundraising peaked after a televised debate defeat against Trump on June 27, when he and his committees raised approximately $28 million in just over 24 hours. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden raised $19.2 million, while Trump and his affiliates raised an impressive $69 million in the 24 hours following the verdict, which even caused a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. His aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million in that same month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups raised $332.4 million, compared to $431.2 million amassed by pro-Trump groups, as reported by The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden had $281 million in hand against Trump’s $336.2 million.