Just one day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats have successfully raised $100 million from donors through ActBlue, their primary fundraising platform. This figure was reported through a live tracker maintained by developer Ryan Murphy at The Marshall Project, although it is based on ActBlue’s own aggregation of total donations since its inception in 2004 and is not yet an official tally.
On Sunday alone, contributions soared to $66.9 million in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign launch, marking the highest single-day fundraising total for the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. Previously, the second-best fundraising day occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first debate between Biden and Trump.
The recent surge in donations has enabled ActBlue to surpass $14 billion in total funds raised since its establishment two decades ago. Comparatively, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in 2019, has collected approximately $4.3 billion.
ActBlue expressed excitement on social media, noting a significant increase in first-time donations in the last 24 hours, which they interpreted as a positive sign for grassroots support.
Additionally, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, gathered $150 million in new commitments from major donors within a day of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left reported raising over $160,000 in just 24 hours for the eventual Democratic nominee.
Evercore founder Roger Altman commented on Harris’s campaign, stating it would be “very well financed” and reaffirming his support. Prominent Democratic donors, including George and Alex Soros, have also pledged their backing to Harris.
Biden’s strongest fundraising moments historically occurred after pivotal events, such as raising approximately $28 million after a debate loss to Trump on June 27. Following Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden secured $19.2 million in donations, while Trump and his affiliates raised $69 million in the immediate aftermath, leading to a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. Additionally, Trump’s aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised $70 million in the same month.
From April to June, pro-Biden groups amassed $332.4 million, while pro-Trump entities collected $431.2 million, with Biden ending June with $281 million in hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.