Data Sources

• Campaign Finance: Federal Election Commission (FEC) — donations from individuals, political action committees (PACs), and outside groups spending to help candidates win
• Voting Records: U.S. House and Senate official records
• Legislator Info: Congress.gov

Time Period

Campaign finance data covers 2020 through present. Voting records cover the current Congress and are updated weekly.

How We Count the Money

Every politician's page shows a Total Financial Footprint — the combined sum of:

• Campaign Contributions: Individual donations and PAC contributions reported to the candidate's own campaign committee
• Super PAC Support: Independent expenditures spent on behalf of the candidate by outside groups

Super PAC money doesn't go directly to the candidate — by law, they can't control how it's spent. But the result is the same: someone is spending big money to get them elected. We track it separately but include it in each politician's total so you can see the full picture.

Where the Money Comes From

We trace every dollar back to the industry that originated it:

• Direct donations: Donors self-report their employer and occupation on FEC filings. We classify those into industries using a lookup table and an AI classifier. Employer takes priority; occupation is used as a fallback.
• PAC money (one step back): When a PAC donates to a candidate, we look at who funded that PAC and tag each dollar by the donor's industry.
• PAC money (two steps back): When a PAC is funded mostly by other PACs, we trace one level further to find the original source.
• Super PAC spending: We have donor data for the majority of Super PACs that spent money on congressional races. Full proportional attribution through independent expenditures is currently in development.

Unclassifiable employers are shown as "Unknown."

What We Can't Tell You

• Donations under $200 aren't itemized by the FEC — we can see the total but not who gave
• Employer and occupation fields are self-reported and are sometimes blank, vague, or misspelled
• Full Super PAC donor attribution is not yet complete — we show the spending organization's industry in the meantime
• FEC data is updated on a rolling basis; there may be a lag between a filing and when it appears here
• We show who gave money and how politicians voted — we don't claim one caused the other

Key Terms

• PAC (Political Action Committee): Raises money from members and donates directly to campaigns. Subject to contribution limits.
• Super PAC: Raises and spends unlimited amounts independently — cannot legally donate directly to or coordinate with a campaign.
• Independent Expenditure: Money spent by an outside group to support or oppose a candidate, not coordinated with the campaign.
• Roll Call Vote: A vote where each member's position is individually recorded.