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Money & Influence

  • What campaigns raise
  • Outside spending to win or defeat candidates
  • Lobbying in Washington
Election cycle
2026

Follow the money

Where each party's campaign money comes from. Pick a candidate to see their funding mix, largest donor committees, and their opponent.

$580.6M raised by 417 Republican candidates, 40% of the $1.5B raised by all 941 tracked candidates

Where Republican campaign money comes from, 2026 cycle

Each band is dollars from one source to one campaign. All 417 candidates, ranked by money raised.

  • Individual donors
  • PACs & other committees
  • Party committees
  • Transfers, loans & other
  • Republican candidate

Source: Federal Election Commission (OpenFEC)

Four kinds of political money

Each number below measures a different flow from a different filing, so they don't add up to one total. A contribution record is a single transaction that also counts toward some campaign's receipts; lobbying pays for influence over policy, not for winning elections.

Campaign money, 2026
$1.5B
Raised directly by candidates’ campaign committees. Covers the 941 tracked candidates (93 Senate, 848 House), reports through Oct 8, 2026.
Explore →
Outside spending
$836.8M
Spent independently to help or defeat candidates: $520.6M supporting, $316.2M opposing. 18,524 filings from 642 groups.
Explore →
Lobbying, 2024
$139M
Paid to influence Congress and federal agencies, not to elect anyone. 596 filings from 33 clients.
Explore →
Contribution records
30,467
Individual committee-to-campaign transactions totalling $520.5M, Jan 2025 – Dec 2026, from 5,450 donor committees.
Explore →

Biggest races by money

Campaign receipts plus outside spending, race by race. Each card compares the leading Democrat and Republican.

All races →

Michigan Senate

$51.5M raised · $75.4M outside spending

D +$1.5M

North Carolina Senate

$51.8M raised · $17.5M outside spending

D +$23.7M

Biggest fundraisers

Total receipts this cycle.

All candidates →
  1. 1T. Jonathan Ossoff$77.3M
  2. 2James Talarico$68.6M
  3. 3Shontel M. Brown$41.9M
  4. 4Roy Cooper$35M
  5. 5Graham Platner$21.1M

Most-targeted races

Independent expenditures by race.

Outside spending →
OpposingSupporting
  1. Michigan Senate$28.5M$46.9M
  2. Texas Senate$50.4M$14.9M
  3. Kentucky Senate$19.7M$26.5M
  4. New York House District 12$11.2M$34.2M
  5. Kentucky House District 4$17.2M$9M

Lobbying, 2024

Who pays to lobby, and on what. Lobbying is reported by calendar year, separately from election cycles; the latest year loaded is 2024.

Explore lobbying →

Top clients by reported spending

  1. 1PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH AND MANUFACTURERS OF AMERICA$26.7M
  2. 2PFIZER INC$25.8M
  3. 3META PLATFORMS, INC. AND VARIOUS SUBSIDIARIES$24.6M
  4. 4LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION$13.8M
  5. 5AT&T SERVICES, INC. AND ITS AFFILIATES$10.5M

Most-lobbied issues, by number of filings

  1. 1Telecommunications177 filings
  2. 2Health Issues124 filings
  3. 3Taxation/Internal Revenue Code112 filings
  4. 4Defense78 filings
  5. 5Budget/Appropriations72 filings

Campaign-finance terms

Hover any dotted term on these pages for its definition; the full list is here.

Show all 17 definitions
Receipts
Everything a campaign committee took in during the cycle: contributions, transfers from other committees, loans, and refunds.
Disbursements
Everything a committee paid out: operating costs, ads, staff, transfers, loan repayments, and refunds.
Cash on hand
Money a committee had in the bank at the end of its latest reporting period.
Individual contribution
A gift from a person to a campaign or committee. Capped per election by federal limits.
PAC
Political action committee: a committee that pools money from members or employees and gives it to candidates, within contribution limits.
Super PAC
A committee that can raise and spend unlimited sums but may not give to or coordinate with candidates. It spends independently instead.
Party committee
A national, state, or local party organization (for example the DSCC or NRSC) that raises money and supports its nominees.
Candidate committee
The official campaign committee a candidate registers with the FEC to raise and spend money for their race.
Joint fundraising committee
A committee set up by two or more candidates or committees to raise money together and split the proceeds, such as a candidate's "Victory Fund".
Transfer
Money moved between affiliated committees, such as a joint fundraising committee passing its share to a campaign.
Independent expenditure
Spending that expressly supports or opposes a candidate and is made without coordinating with any campaign. Reported on FEC Schedule E.
Coordinated expenditure
Party spending made in cooperation with a nominee's campaign, subject to its own limits.
Outside spending
Money spent to help or defeat candidates by groups other than the campaigns themselves: super PACs, party committees, and nonprofits.
Lobbying client
The company, trade group, or organization paying for lobbying on its behalf.
Lobbying registrant
The lobbying firm (or the organization itself, when lobbying in-house) that registers and files the disclosure reports.
Lobbyist
A person paid to contact members of Congress, staff, or executive-branch officials on behalf of a client.
Election cycle
The two-year period ending with a federal general election. The 2026 cycle runs from January 2025 through December 2026.