How this works

Where the data comes from

We use the FEC’s public OpenFEC API for the 2025-26 election cycle.

• Issue 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.

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.
• November ballot: for each race with outside spending, we check who is on the November ballot against the race’s Wikipedia page, state election offices or local news, and link the source on the page. 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.
• 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.

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.
• Small donors. Contributions of $200 or less aren’t itemized by name.

Committee types

Using this data

Federal law (52 U.S.C. 30111(a)(4)) 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 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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