The shock news that Joe Biden would be ending his reelection campaign and backing Vice President Kamala Harris for the 2024 election has proved to be a shot in the arm for the Democrats, with the move spurring a flood of donations Sunday night.
ActBlue, the Democrat-linked fundraising platform, revealed that by Sunday night, tens of millions had been raised from small donors after Biden tweeted his statement that he was stepping down.
“As of 9pm ET, grassroots supporters have raised $46.7 million through ActBlue following Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign launch,” the ActBlue official X (formerly Twitter) account tweeted. “This has been the biggest fundraising day of the 2024 cycle. Small-dollar donors are fired up and ready to take on this election.”
That fundraising total likely topped $50 million by a wide margin, with The New York Times reporting that milestone was crossed, making Sunday the single biggest day for online Democratic contributions since the 2020 election. Additionally, ActBlue crossed the $14 billion milestone for total donations raised since it was founded in 2004.
The surge in enthusiasm and donations is in marked contrast to reports that Democrat donors had turned cold on Biden since his disastrous performance in the first presidential debate, and speculation about his future stepped up in the immediate aftermath.