A day after President Joe Biden announced he would not run for re-election, Democrats raised $100 million through their primary fundraising platform, ActBlue.
Over a span of two days, ActBlue, which supports Democratic initiatives, reported this substantial figure via a live tracker created by Ryan Murphy from The Marshall Project. Although this figure is not yet officially confirmed as it is derived from ActBlue’s self-reported donation totals since 2004, it offers insight into the group’s fundraising efforts ahead of the upcoming disclosure deadline.
On Sunday alone, the launch of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign attracted $66.9 million in donations, marking an extraordinary fundraising day in the 2024 election cycle for ActBlue. The second-highest daily fundraising total in recent years occurred on September 30, 2020, during the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump, as noted by Murphy’s tracker.
As a result of the surge in donations over the weekend, ActBlue reached a milestone of $14 billion raised since its inception 20 years ago. Comparatively, WinRed, the Republican fundraising platform launched in late 2019, has collected around $4.3 billion, according to OpenSecrets.
ActBlue shared on social media that many donors reported making their inaugural contributions in the last 24 hours, expressing enthusiasm for the influx of new small-dollar donors joining the grassroots movement.
In addition, Future Forward, a super PAC aligned with Biden, secured $150 million in new commitments from major donors within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and endorsement of Harris. Swing Left, which established a fund for the eventual Democratic nominee, reported raising over $160,000 within the same timeframe.
Roger Altman, founder of Evercore, indicated on Monday that Harris’s campaign would be “very well financed” and offered his support, while major Democratic donors George and Alex Soros have also pledged their backing to her.
Previously, Biden had experienced significant fundraising spikes following a debate defeat to former President Donald Trump, raising approximately $28 million between June 27 and June 28. After Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Biden collected $19.2 million in the following days, while Trump and his supporters raised $69 million in the 24 hours post-conviction, even causing a temporary crash of Trump’s campaign website. The aligned super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., raised an additional $70 million that month.
From April to June, pro-Biden factions raised $332.4 million, while pro-Trump factions garnered $431.2 million, according to The Financial Times. By the end of June, Biden reported having $281 million in hand compared to Trump’s $336.2 million.