One way to sneakily learn more about someone’s politics and the issues they truly care about is to figure out which campaigns they’ve backed financially. Sometimes you’ll find unexpected surprises or learn that where someone puts their money isn’t always just about party affiliation. Or you may discover that an organization that professes certain values votes differently with its dollars.
If you want to know whether (and how much) your family member, neighbor, employer, or favorite company has contributed to various political candidates, you can easily find this information by searching publicly available financial disclosure records.
Are political donations public record?
In general, donations made to political campaigns are public record. All Senate, House, and presidential candidates (and any committees that are authorized to raise money for them) have to report campaign donations to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). FEC rules require campaigns to track all contributions, though the amount of information collected and reported varies by donation amount. For contributions of $50 or less (such as cash collected at a fundraiser), campaigns do not need to collect any identifiable information about the donor.
Reporting requirements also vary for state candidates based on state laws: For example, campaigns may not need to disclose donor identities for small-dollar contributions totaling less than $50–$100.
How to track donations to national campaigns
The FEC has a searchable donor database that lets you browse donors by recipient or contributor and further narrow your results by zip code, donor occupation, employer, contribution amount, and more.
Poring over the FEC reports can feel a little overwhelming, though. A more manageable option is the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization OpenSecrets (formerly known as the Center for Responsive Politics), which tracks money in U.S. elections and politics and compiles detailed reports on spending by lobbyists, political action committees (PACs), interest groups, and other donors. OpenSecrets has a searchable campaign donation database that tells you which campaigns or candidates a donor has contributed to. You can also use the advanced search option to sort by recipient or donor data like occupation, employer, or zip code.
Another way to browse contributions is with the organization's Get Local! tool. Select the candidate’s state from the drop-down menu, then use the tabs to pull up reports by donor, candidate, metro area, and more. The same tool has a zip code search, allowing you to narrow the list of donations to just your neighborhood.
How to track donations to state and local campaigns
The FEC collects data on federal campaigns and candidates only. The National Institute on Money in Politics runs a tool called FollowTheMoney.org for tracking donations to state and local campaigns. Note that the organization has merged with the Center for Responsive Politics, so OpenSecrets will house all of the available data in the future.
For now, though, you can use FollowTheMoney.org to browse and search state campaign finance data through the 2024 election year. Select the state you’re interested in from the map, which will open a new tab with a state overview. From there, you can select the office type (gubernatorial, for example) to narrow in on donation details for specific races.
Another option is to scroll past the map to the Tools section and use the drop-down menus to select your state and election cycle. Finally, try entering a name into the main search bar—this will bring up an individual’s contributions and, if they’re also a candidate, detail the money they’ve received.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for on FollowTheMoney, you can go directly to your state’s campaign finance or election commission website to search disclosure forms.
There are also state-based organizations, like the Virginia Public Access Project, that track money in local elections. A quick Google search along the lines of “campaign disclosures [state]” should help you track down these groups if they exist in your area.
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