How this works

Where the data comes from

We use the FEC’s public OpenFEC API (opens in a new tab) for the 2025-26 election cycle.

• Issue, race and candidate pages are rebuilt every night.
• Committee pages are refreshed at most every six hours.
• The late-money feed is refreshed every 15 minutes, using reports as filed, before the FEC processes them.
• Election results come from civicAPI (opens in a new tab), which collects counts from state election offices. See election night.
• Governor races come from state filings, read by hand. See governor pages.

How issue pages are built

Each issue has a public list of the groups we track, split by where they stand. A group goes on the list when its stated mission is about that issue or it is the political committee of an industry or organization directly involved. Think a group is missing or on the wrong side? Email corrections@paidforpolitics.com.

For each group we count four things this cycle:

• Given: the group’s own contributions to candidates’ campaign committees.
• Bundled: contributions individual donors make through the group, earmarked for a specific candidate, which the group collects and forwards. AIPAC PAC and J Street PAC raise most of their money this way. The FEC files these under the recipient’s name without a committee ID, so we match the names to campaign committees using the FEC’s committee list and leave out any name that doesn’t match exactly one campaign. Bundled money belongs to the donors, so it’s shown on its own and never added to the group’s own giving.
• Outside spending for or against: independent expenditures, such as ads and mail, reported to the FEC as supporting or opposing a candidate. The FEC’s totals come from regular monthly or quarterly reports; we add the 24- and 48-hour reports filed since each group’s last regular report, as filed, so the latest spending isn’t missing.

All sides of an issue are laid out and counted the same way. A side with no federal spending shows $0, with a note that nothing was found.

Issues tracked: Housing, Health care costs, AI & data centers, Immigration, Guns, Abortion, Energy & climate, Israel, Policing & prisons, Education, Crypto, Defense.

How race pages are built

Each 2026 House and Senate race has a page listing every group that reported independent spending in it, not only the groups on our issue pages. The list comes from every independent expenditure filed with the FEC this cycle, refreshed nightly.

• Primary, special or general: each expenditure is filed with the election it was for, and we split the money on that line. Seats that had a special election this cycle show that money separately, including ads a filer coded as general that ran before the special. Spending a filer didn’t tie to an election is counted in the totals and noted.
• Late reports: 24- and 48-hour reports filed since a group’s last regular report. Earlier ones are repeated on that regular report, so we count them once. Memo lines, which explain other entries, aren’t counted.
• Which race: spending is placed in the race the candidate is running in this cycle, by the FEC’s candidate record, so redrawn districts follow the candidate. Spending filed under a candidate’s older FEC ID moves to their 2026 race. When a filing names a candidate without an FEC ID, or by a nickname, we match the name to a candidate running for that office in that state, and leave it out of the race if more than one fits.
• November ballot: for every race, we check who is on the November ballot against the state’s certified candidate list, a county election office or sample ballot, or news reports, and link the source on the page with the date we checked. Nominees, including independents and third-party candidates, appear first. Everyone else who filed is listed under “Not on the November ballot,” with the money spent around them.
• Linking nominees to the FEC: each night, every nominee is matched by name to their FEC record in that race, so a candidate who files late is linked the next day. Two different people with the same name are never guessed; we link those by hand. Nominees who haven’t filed a report, usually because they’ve raised less than $5,000, are listed by name.
• Money on each side: in a general election between two candidates, each side adds money spent supporting a candidate to money spent attacking their opponent. When heavy spending surrounds more than two candidates, or much of it is around candidates who aren’t on the ballot, the page explains that and shows each candidate separately.
• New since the last update: each race page lists the outside spending that arrived in the latest nightly update.
• Checks before each update: each night we compare the new totals with the night before. If a race’s total drops sharply, the new race data is held back until the drop is checked, so a bad download can’t erase real spending. Group totals are also checked against the running totals filers report.
• Candidates: receipts, spending and cash on hand for the full 2026 cycle, from the FEC’s candidate totals. Candidates who withdrew, died or lost a primary stay listed, with a label, because money was spent around them.
• Some groups file one ad as two lines, half supporting one candidate and half opposing the other. The two lines together are the cost of one ad.

How candidate pages are built

Each candidate page charts the money raised or spent on that candidate’s behalf this cycle, in three parts. Below the chart are the campaign’s totals, every group spending for or against the candidate, and the latest filings about them.

• Campaign fundraising: the campaign’s receipts by source, from the FEC’s candidate totals, which cover every committee the candidate has authorized. Transfers from joint fundraising committees are mostly donations from individuals that a shared committee collected and passed on. “Other receipts” is whatever is left of total receipts after the listed sources, such as refunds and interest.
• Party coordinated spending: money a party committee spends in cooperation with the campaign, within limits set by law. The FEC’s processed data for this runs weeks behind, so we read each party committee’s own filings the night they’re filed. Only the latest version of each report counts. Memo lines, which repeat other lines with more detail, aren’t counted. Every report’s lines are checked against the coordinated spending total on its summary page before we use it. When a party lists a candidate by name with no FEC ID, we match the name to the candidate running for that office.
• Outside groups supporting the candidate: independent expenditures supporting them in any election this cycle, from the same data as the race pages. Spending against the candidate is listed under the chart and isn’t counted in it.
• If the FEC is slow: campaign totals are read from the FEC when the page is requested. If that fails, the chart shows the campaign’s total from the last nightly update as one amount and says so, and the breakdown by source returns once the FEC responds.

How governor pages are built

Governor candidates file with their state, not the FEC, so each governor race page is read by hand from the state’s own filings after each reporting deadline, about once a week. Every figure shows the date it runs through and links to its source.

• Candidates: money raised, spent and cash on hand, for the period the state reports. States count differently, so each card says what its period covers. Loans and goods or services given to a campaign are noted but not counted as raised.
• Outside money: listed by how it reached the race. Independent spending is money a group spent on its own for or against a candidate. In states without contribution limits, or where candidates run a second committee, national groups and others give directly, so large gifts are listed too, with how they were made.
• What’s missing: states require different things. Where a state doesn’t tie outside spending to a candidate, the page says so instead of guessing. Ads that don’t urge a vote for or against someone usually aren’t reported anywhere.
• The Republican and Democratic Governors Associations report to the IRS. Their gifts are listed when they show up in a state filing.
• Timing: House and Senate data refreshes from the FEC every night. Governor pages are updated by hand after each state’s deadline, about once a week, so they can trail a new filing by a few days, and states that file less often can be weeks behind.
• Corrections: reading filings by hand means mistakes are possible. Email corrections@paidforpolitics.com with a link to the filing and we’ll fix it.

Election night

From 6 p.m. Eastern on Nov. 3, race pages and the results page show vote counts from civicAPI (opens in a new tab), updated every minute, next to the outside money spent around each candidate. Counts are unofficial until each state certifies them; your state’s election office has the official count.

• Race calls: civicAPI runs its own decision desk. We check for new calls every 30 minutes on election night and less often after. A call is used only after it holds for two checks in a row, and it comes off the site if civicAPI takes it back. We can also enter or hold back a call by hand, with a link to its source. Each race page says who made its call.
• Matching names: each winner is matched by name to a nominee on our checked ballot. If a winner doesn’t match exactly one nominee with an FEC record, the race stays uncalled here until we check it.
• Result cards: each called race gets a shareable card with the winner and how much outside money backed them.

How the scorecard works

The scorecard shows, for every group spending in House and Senate races, how much of its outside spending ended up on the winning side. A dollar counts as won if it supported the winner or opposed a loser, and as lost if it supported a loser or opposed the winner. Primary money is measured against who won each nomination, and general-election money against who won in November. Races still waiting on a result are left out until they’re decided. Direct contributions to campaigns aren’t included.

November results come from the race calls described under election night.

Dollars per vote

For each member of Congress, we take the campaign’s total spending for the election that put them in office and divide it by all votes cast in that race. For House members that’s the 2024 general election; for senators it’s the 2020, 2022 or 2024 election, depending on their seat.

• Spending is everything the candidate’s campaign committees paid out for that election, from the FEC’s candidate summary files, minus money moved between the candidate’s own committees. It includes money a campaign passes on to party committees, which is why party leaders often rank high. It doesn’t include outside groups. For senators, that’s the six years leading up to the election, but no earlier than the start of their previous Senate term, so a special election or appointment shortly before isn’t counted as part of the same race.
• Votes are all votes cast in the general election. House results come from the MIT Election Data + Science Lab. Senate results for 2020 to 2024 are each state’s certified totals, taken from the race’s Wikipedia page and checked against Ballotpedia and NBC News where a total was incomplete. Georgia’s 2020 and 2022 seats were decided in runoffs, so those use runoff votes.
• We check that the winner in the results matches the current member. When it doesn’t, or when a member was appointed or won a special election, we don’t show a figure.
• A high number isn’t good or bad by itself. Competitive races cost more, and uncontested ones cost less.

What FEC data can’t show

• Lobbying. It’s reported to Congress, not the FEC, and is often much larger than election spending.
• Donors to many nonprofits. Groups organized as 501(c)(4)s and similar nonprofits generally don’t have to disclose donors. When money passes through one of them, we can’t see who originally gave it.
• State and local races. Those are reported to state agencies, such as the North Carolina State Board of Elections (opens in a new tab).
• Small donors. Contributions of $200 or less aren’t itemized by name.

Committee types

Using this data

You’re free to reuse these figures and charts. Please credit PaidForPolitics and link to the page.

Each chart and the main tables have a Share button. It gives you the image in post, square and story sizes, a link whose preview shows the image, and embed code for your own site. Images and embeds update each night with new filings, and every image shows the date its data runs through and the page it came from. Table images show the top rows; the full table is on the page.

Federal law (52 U.S.C. 30111(a)(4) (opens in a new tab)) prohibits using contributor names from FEC reports to solicit contributions or for commercial purposes. We show them for public information only, and we don’t display street addresses.

Found an error? Email corrections@paidforpolitics.com. We fix mistakes quickly and note what changed.

Who pays for this site

PaidForPolitics is a Crossfxn (opens in a new tab) project, paid for by Kyle Laverty and optional reader donations. We don’t take money from candidates, parties, PACs or campaigns, and there are no ads. Donations aren’t tax-deductible. Support this site (opens in a new tab)

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