FEC Campaign Finance Tracker — PAC, Donor, Candidate Spending

What does FEC Campaign Finance Tracker do?

FEC Campaign Finance Tracker pulls political donation data and campaign spending records directly from the Federal Election Commission's official public API. It returns structured data on candidate fundraising totals, individual contributions (Schedule A), campaign disbursements (Schedule B), and PAC / Super PAC committee profiles. This FEC campaign finance tracker replaces manual searching on fec.gov with a fully programmable election spending API that works out of the box using DEMO_KEY — no registration required.

All other commercial services (Bloomberg Government, OpenSecrets) derive their data from the same FEC source and charge $500–$8,000+/year. This actor gives you direct, unmarketed access to the same political donation data at $0.001 per record.

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Why use FEC Campaign Finance Tracker?

• Political research and journalism — Track fundraising trends across election cycles, surface the largest donors to any candidate, and expose PAC spending patterns without a data subscription
• Corporate political spending analysis — Identify which companies fund which candidates via PACs and Super PACs, and map the corporate-political network
• Donor network mapping — Trace large individual contributions across multiple committees to build donor relationship graphs
• Election forecasting — Use fundraising velocity and cash-on-hand as leading indicators of electoral viability for quantitative models
• Compliance and opposition research — Monitor competing candidates' financial positions, detect unusual spending spikes, and stay ahead of FEC filing deadlines

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How to use FEC Campaign Finance Tracker

1. Open the actor on Apify and click Try for free
2. Choose a mode: candidates, donations, disbursements, or committees
3. Apply filters: candidateName, party, office, state, electionYear, or minAmount
4. The default DEMO_KEY works immediately (60 req/hour). For production, register a free key at api.data.gov/signup for 1,000 req/hour
5. Set maxResults (up to 1,000) and click Start
6. Download results as JSON or CSV, or integrate via Apify API

Source	Cost	Data
Bloomberg Government	$8,000+/year	FEC + more
OpenSecrets API	$500+/year	FEC-derived
This Actor	$0.001/record	Direct FEC API
FEC Website	Free (manual)	FEC

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Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	candidates	candidates, donations, disbursements, or committees
candidateName	string	—	Candidate name search (e.g. "Trump", "Harris")
committeeName	string	—	PAC or committee name search
office	string	—	P (President), S (Senate), H (House)
state	string	—	2-letter state code (e.g. CA, TX)
party	string	—	DEM, REP, or IND
electionYear	integer	2024	Election cycle (e.g. 2024, 2022, 2020)
minAmount	number	0	Minimum donation or disbursement in USD
fecApiKey	string	DEMO_KEY	FEC API key — DEMO_KEY included
maxResults	integer	100	Max records returned (up to 1,000)

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Output

Mode: candidates — fundraising totals

[
  {
    "type": "candidate_total",
    "candidate_id": "P80001571",
    "candidate_name": "BIDEN, JOSEPH R JR",
    "party_full": "Democrat",
    "office_full": "President",
    "state": "US",
    "election_year": 2024,
    "total_receipts": 97432891.23,
    "total_disbursements": 88120044.00,
    "cash_on_hand": 9312847.23,
    "debts_owed_by_committee": 0,
    "coverage_start_date": "2023-01-01",
    "coverage_end_date": "2024-06-30"
  }
]

Mode: donations — individual contributions (Schedule A)

[
  {
    "type": "donation",
    "contributor_name": "SMITH, JOHN",
    "contributor_city": "NEW YORK",
    "contributor_state": "NY",
    "contributor_employer": "GOLDMAN SACHS",
    "contributor_occupation": "INVESTMENT BANKER",
    "contribution_receipt_amount": 3300.00,
    "contribution_receipt_date": "2024-03-15",
    "committee_name": "ACTBLUE",
    "candidate_name": "BIDEN, JOSEPH R JR",
    "entity_type": "Individual"
  }
]

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Data fields

Field	Type	Description
type	string	Record type: candidate_total, donation, disbursement, or committee
candidate_id	string	FEC candidate ID (P/S/H prefix)
candidate_name	string	Candidate name in FEC format (LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME)
party_full	string	Full party name
office_full	string	President, Senate, or House
election_year	integer	Election cycle year
total_receipts	number	Total donations received in USD
total_disbursements	number	Total campaign spending in USD
cash_on_hand	number	Remaining cash in USD
contribution_receipt_amount	number	Individual donation amount in USD
contributor_employer	string	Donor's employer (Schedule A itemized donations)
disbursement_amount	number	Spending amount in USD (Schedule B)
purpose_full	string	Spending purpose description
committee_type_full	string	PAC type (e.g. Super PAC, Party Committee)

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Cost estimation

Event	Price	Example
Per record returned	$0.001	—
100 records	~$0.10	Top donor list for one candidate
1,000 records	~$1.00	Full 2024 presidential donor sweep
Top 50 candidates	~$0.05	Full candidate fundraising landscape

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FAQ

Does this cover state-level campaign finance? No. The FEC only covers federal elections (President, Senate, House). For state-level finance data, check your state's elections board — most have their own public portals.

Why do some individual donations not appear in Schedule A? The FEC only itemizes contributions over $200 per election. Small-dollar donations bundled through platforms like ActBlue are reported in aggregate and may not appear as individual records.

How current is the data? FEC data is updated within 24–48 hours of official FEC filing deadlines. For real-time campaign events, check fec.gov directly. The actor pulls from the live FEC API with no caching.

Disclaimer: This actor accesses publicly available election spending data from the Federal Election Commission's open API. The developer is not affiliated with the FEC or any political party or candidate. Data is provided for research and informational purposes only.

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Keywords: FEC campaign finance tracker, political donation data, election spending API, PAC tracker, Super PAC, candidate fundraising, FEC API, OpenSecrets alternative, federal election data, campaign finance scraper

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