FEC Campaign Finance Scraper

Export structured public OpenFEC candidate aggregate-finance records for discovery, comparison, monitoring, and governance.

What you get

Search the public OpenFEC catalog and save one deduplicated row per candidate aggregate-finance record. Results include candidate identity, office, state, party, election years, principal committee identity, totals availability, cycle coverage, aggregate receipts, aggregate contributions, spending, cash, and debt. Use discovery inputs for market maps and exact-name inputs, when available, for stable monitoring cohorts.

Output fields

Field group	Description
Identity	candidateId, name, office, state, district, party, candidateStatus, incumbentChallenge, electionYears, activeThrough.
Committee	principalCommittees — linked committee ID, name, type, and party.
Finance totals	receipts, contributions, individualContributionsAggregate, otherPoliticalCommitteeContributions, transfersFromAffiliatedCommittees, disbursements, operatingExpenditures, cashOnHand, debtsOwedByCommittee, debtsOwedToCommittee.
Coverage and status	totalsCycle, totalsAvailable, totalsStatus, coverageStartDate, coverageEndDate.
Provenance	searchQuery, source, sourceDataset, sourceUrl, and a useRestriction note on excluded individual-contributor data.

Example output

{"candidateId":"S8FL00216","name":"BARTLETT, HAMILTON ALLEN SMITH","office":"Senate","party":"REP","totalsStatus":"available","receipts":3852434.85,"disbursements":831532.74,"totalsCycle":2026,"source":"Federal Election Commission public data"}

Input parameters

Parameter	Required	Description
queries	No	Up to five candidate-name searches.
candidateIds	No	Up to 25 exact FEC candidate IDs.
cycle	Yes	Even-numbered election cycle.
state	No	Optional state code.
office	No	House, Senate, or President.
party	No	Optional FEC party code.
includeTotals	No	Add cycle-level aggregate finance.
apiKey	No	Optional OpenFEC key; DEMO_KEY is the fallback.
maxResultsPerQuery	Yes	Maximum candidates per name.
maxResults	Yes	Maximum unique candidates saved.

At least one discovery or exact-name input is required. Result limits apply after cross-input deduplication, and only saved unique rows are charged.

Use cases

• Journalists and researchers: build a dated evidence trail of candidate fundraising and spending for a race or cycle.
• Compliance and government-transparency teams: monitor committee totals, cash position, and debt across a tracked portfolio of candidates.
• Political consultants and analysts: compare receipts, spending, and cash-on-hand across candidates in the same office or state.
• Academic and policy researchers: study campaign-finance trends across multiple election cycles with reproducible, source-linked queries.

Limitations

The Actor never calls individual-contributor endpoints and removes treasurer, agent, phone, and address fields. With the shared DEMO_KEY, candidate discovery uses the official FEC cycle candidate-master file; supplied keys use live OpenFEC search. Totals depend on filing coverage and amendments. Each row reports totalsStatus, and a private OpenFEC key supports steadier enrichment at scale.

Compared to alternatives

Current Apify Store alternatives include automation-lab/fec-campaign-finance-scraper and easyapi/fec-candidate-scraper. Thirdwatch saves a source link on every row and removes duplicates before you are charged, so you pay only for unique results. Compare current Store listings directly because competitor features and pricing can change.

FAQ

Does this Actor expose individual donor records or require FEC credentials?

No. It queries the public OpenFEC API with the shared DEMO_KEY or your own free OpenFEC key, and excludes individual-contributor, treasurer, agent, and contact records.

How should I monitor a fixed portfolio?

Use exact names where supported, keep result limits explicit, save the input as an Apify Task, and retain dated datasets. Do not let an empty or failed run overwrite the previous successful snapshot.

Does a public record prove the final conclusion?

No. Public-source records are evidence for analysis, not the analysis itself. Keep provenance, apply documented rules separately, and require qualified review for high-stakes decisions.

Where can I find more workflows?

Visit Thirdwatch public-data scrapers and other Thirdwatch Actors, including Federal Register Scraper, USAspending Federal Awards Scraper, and SEC EDGAR Scraper.

Last verified: 2026-07