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Use the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for U.S. House, Senate, presidential, and federally registered PAC filings. Search the candidate or committee, confirm the committee ID and other identity details, then open the actual filing rather than relying only on a summary. For a state, county, city, school-board, or ballot-measure campaign, use the responsible state or local disclosure office instead; those records generally are not part of the FEC system.
The workflow below shows how to identify the right filing authority, locate a report, verify that it belongs to the entity you mean, trace outside spending, handle older records, and compare filings without mixing jurisdictions, reporting periods, or amendments.
1. Determine which disclosure system holds the report
Jurisdiction is the first decision. Federal law and state or local law use separate filing systems, forms, schedules, and publication practices. An FEC search can be complete for a congressional campaign yet tell you nothing about a city-council race.
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|---|---|---|
| U.S. House, U.S. Senate, or presidential candidate | FEC Browse Data and the candidate’s FEC record | Candidate name, associated committee, office, state, election cycle, and committee ID |
| Federal PAC, party committee, or other federally registered committee | FEC committee search and filing list | Full committee name, committee type, treasurer, state, and committee ID |
| State legislature or statewide candidate | The state ethics, elections, or campaign-finance disclosure office | Whether the state office accepts the filing directly or delegates it to another authority |
| County, city, school-board, or other local race | State directory first, then the county clerk, municipal clerk, elections office, or other designated local filing authority | The local jurisdiction’s filing deadline, report names, and archive coverage |
| State or local ballot measure committee | The state or local disclosure office specified by that jurisdiction’s law | Whether the committee is registered statewide or with a particular county or municipality |
The FEC’s public-records guidance explains that state offices hold nonfederal disclosures that are not filed with the Commission. Its Combined Federal/State Disclosure and Election Directory is an index of responsible offices and the types of information they maintain, not a single nationwide database. The directory cautions that “Because state law varies widely (in the level of reporting, the frequency of filing, and the content of the reports), the researcher may find that the value of the data disclosed differs from state to state.”
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If the office sought is not federal, record the state, county, or municipality before searching. That one detail determines which agency’s terminology, reporting calendar, and archive you must use.
2. Find a federal candidate or committee in FEC Browse Data
The FEC’s Browse Data portal is the starting point for federal filings. You can search by committee, candidate, receipt date, or form type and then open the filing documents attached to the matching record.
- Open Browse Data. Start at the FEC data portal rather than a third-party summary. Choose the candidate or committee search that matches your question.
- Enter the most distinctive name you know. Try the candidate’s surname, the committee’s registered name, or a distinctive word in its title. If a committee’s name has changed, search both the current and former wording.
- Filter the results. Narrow by state, election cycle, committee type, receipt date, or form type when the result set is large. A date filter is especially useful when looking for a quarterly, monthly, pre-election, or post-election report.
- Open the entity record. Select the result to reach its profile, financial summaries, and filing list. Do not assume the first similarly named committee is the right one.
- Choose the filing period and document. Read the coverage dates and report type. Open the report PDF or electronic filing itself for the disclosure; use the summary as an index to orient yourself.
The FEC describes its public data portal and downloadable files at fec.gov/data/browse-data/. The portal’s displayed totals can be useful for navigation, but the filed schedules are the primary record when you need to know who gave money, whom a committee paid, or what an expenditure was for.
3. Verify that you have the intended committee
Names alone are not reliable identifiers. A candidate may have more than one committee over a career, and a PAC may share words with an unrelated organization. Before reading figures, compare the record’s identity fields:
- Full legal committee name and any former name shown in the record.
- Committee ID (often called the FEC ID), which is the most dependable key for repeat searches.
- Committee type, such as candidate committee, political action committee, party committee, or another category.
- Candidate association, including the office and election cycle, when the committee supports a candidate.
- State, street address, treasurer, and other identifying information displayed by the FEC.
The FEC’s guide to researching committees, How to research PACs, parties and other committees, describes alphabetical, state, and sponsoring-organization lists. It also supports name searches when you know a keyword from the committee title or treasurer’s name. Use those lists to find candidates for a search, then use the committee ID to make sure later filings belong to the same entity.
For candidate research, the FEC’s candidate guide links candidates to their authorized committees and related filings. A candidate profile can therefore be a better starting point than a broad committee-name search when several committees use similar wording.
4. Open the filing, not just the financial summary
A profile page may show receipts, disbursements, cash on hand, or an itemized transaction view. Those numbers help you understand the scale and locate the right period, but the report filing contains the disclosure schedules and explanatory information.
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- Itemized contributions and the contributor name, date, amount, and address information required by the applicable schedule.
- Transfers from affiliated committees and other receipts.
- Operating expenses, transfers, refunds, and other disbursements.
- Loans, debts, obligations, and amended entries when reported.
- Independent expenditures or other activity that the committee disclosed on the relevant form.
How to select the correct document
- Check the filing’s coverage period (the “from” and “through” dates).
- Check the form and report type, such as a periodic report, pre-election report, post-election report, termination report, or amendment.
- Look for an amendment indicator. An amended filing may replace or correct a prior submission; do not add both versions together unless you are deliberately analyzing the revision history.
- Open the original document or electronic filing attached to that row. Save the filing date and report coverage dates with any figures you extract.
For a question such as “Who donated to this PAC in June?” the answer should come from the itemized receipt schedule for the filing that covers June, not from a year-to-date total on a profile card.
5. Research a PAC’s donors and spending
A PAC search has two distinct parts: the committee’s own receipts and disbursements, and activity by other committees that involves the PAC or the candidate it supports.
Find the PAC record
Use the PAC guide’s committee lists when you know a state, sponsoring organization, treasurer, or part of the committee name. Confirm the ID, committee type, and address before opening reports. A sponsor’s name in a committee title does not by itself establish that every similarly named group is the same committee.
Locate itemized donors
Open the receipts schedule for the period in question. Filter or inspect the itemized transactions, then note whether an entry is a contribution, transfer, refund, or another receipt category. The period matters: a report covering one quarter cannot answer a question about the entire election cycle without checking the other reports.
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Trace the PAC’s candidate activity
Use the committee’s disbursement and independent-expenditure schedules to see payments made for communications, electioneering, or other activity. If your question is “How much did PAC X spend for or against Candidate Y?”, search the candidate’s related filings as well as PAC X’s own reports. The candidate guide identifies cross-references to other committees’ reports that disclose PAC or party contributions, independent expenditures for or against candidates, and communication costs.
Outside spending may never appear in the candidate committee’s receipts or disbursements. Treat the candidate’s report and the outside group’s report as separate records, then compare their dates and descriptions.
6. Research a candidate’s filings
Candidate records connect an individual to the authorized committee that files on the campaign’s behalf. Search by the candidate’s name, then verify the office, state, election cycle, and committee association before selecting a filing.
- Open the candidate profile from the FEC candidate search.
- Confirm that the office and election cycle match the race you mean. A person may appear in records for more than one election.
- Follow the linked authorized committee and open its filing list.
- Select the report whose coverage dates answer your question, then open the filing document.
- If the question concerns support or opposition by other organizations, follow the profile’s cross-references to PAC, party, independent-expenditure, and communication-cost filings.
A candidate’s own committee report is the record for the campaign committee’s activity. It is not a complete ledger of every outside group that mentions the candidate, so connected-activity searches are necessary for a broader spending picture.
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7. Compare two reports without mixing unlike records
Before comparing totals, put the reports’ identity and timing information in a small worksheet. The following fields prevent the most common false comparisons:
| Field | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction and office | Federal, state, and local filings follow different rules; even two “senate” races may refer to different systems. |
| Entity and committee ID | Similar names, renamed committees, and affiliated organizations can otherwise be mistaken for one another. |
| Election cycle | Cycle-to-date totals are not interchangeable across elections. |
| Coverage dates | A monthly, quarterly, pre-election, or post-election period measures a different interval. |
| Report type and amendment status | An amendment can correct an earlier filing; adding both versions can double-count activity. |
| Primary filing versus summary | The filing schedules are the disclosure record; summary figures are an index or overview. |
| Candidate committee versus outside committee | Independent expenditures and party or PAC activity may be reported by a different entity. |
| Receipt or filing date | Shows when the office received or posted the report and helps explain why a newer transaction is not yet visible. |
When you publish or share a figure, include the committee name and ID, report type, coverage dates, and whether the amount is a period total or a cycle-to-date total. That context makes the number reproducible.
8. Know the FEC’s online coverage and posting times
The FEC’s public-records overview at How to research public records gives these online starting points:
| Federal record category | Online coverage begins |
|---|---|
| PAC, party, and presidential filings | 1993 |
| House filings | May 1996 |
| Senate filings | May 2000 |
These are availability start dates, not counts of reports. The PAC research checklist discusses reports from 1972 onward as part of committee research, but PAC and party filings on the FEC website begin in 1993; Senate party filings begin in May 2000. Candidate research guidance gives the corresponding online starting dates for presidential, Senate, and House reports.
The FEC says electronically filed reports are made available for public inspection within 24 hours of receipt and other required reports within 48 hours. That is a publication standard, not a promise that a campaign has filed every report by the date you expect. Check the filing list for missing periods, late filings, or an amendment posted after the original.
When the report predates the online archive
For older federal records, contact the FEC Public Records Office. The FEC’s public-records page and the PAC and candidate research guides direct researchers there when a report is outside the online coverage for that committee or candidate. State and local archives have their own retention and digitization limits, so ask the responsible office what years it can supply.
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9. Use downloadable FEC data for many committees
Manual browsing works for one candidate or PAC. For a multi-committee analysis, use the FEC data portal’s master files and downloadable datasets. The committee master file includes federal PACs and party committees, candidate committees, and groups spending for or against federal candidates.
A practical bulk-data workflow
- Download the committee or candidate master file and keep the committee ID as your key.
- Filter the file to the committee types, states, or election cycles relevant to your question.
- Use the IDs to retrieve the related filings or transaction data rather than joining on names alone.
- Record the dataset’s update date and your download date; update cadence varies by dataset.
- Validate any important total against the filed report, especially when an amendment or a paper filing is involved.
Bulk files can be large, and the portal’s update timing differs among datasets. They are useful for sorting, aggregation, and repeatable analysis but should not replace checking the primary filing when a transaction or total is disputed.
Paper filings and transcribed data
Paper reports are the official disclosure filing for paper filers. If a contractor-transcribed electronic version conflicts with the paper report, the paper filing takes precedence. Preserve a copy or a stable record of the paper document when your conclusion depends on the discrepancy.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.10. Find state and local reports
For a state or local campaign, start with the FEC’s Combined Federal/State Disclosure and Election Directory to identify the state disclosure office and its contact information. Then follow that office’s own search instructions. A state portal may direct county or municipal committees to a clerk or local elections agency instead of retaining the filing centrally.
Questions to answer on the state or local portal
- Which office receives this candidate’s or committee’s registration and periodic reports?
- Is the race classified as state, county, municipal, school-board, or ballot-measure activity?
- What report names and filing periods apply to this election?
- Does the portal show amendments, scanned documents, transaction-level data, or only summary totals?
- How far back does the online archive go, and how can older records be requested?
Do not assume that a state portal’s “contributions” field means the same thing as an FEC field. States differ in reporting levels, filing frequency, content, thresholds for itemization, and historical depth. A local filing authority may also use a different report calendar from the state office.
When the state search returns nothing
- Check the candidate’s exact jurisdiction and election year.
- Search the state office’s committee or candidate registry, not only its transaction page.
- Look for a county or municipal filing-office link in the state’s instructions.
- Try the committee’s legal name, treasurer name, and any registration number.
- Contact the designated records office and ask which report form and years it can provide.
The absence of a result in the FEC database does not demonstrate that no disclosure exists; it may simply be a nonfederal filing held by another office.
11. Troubleshoot common search problems
Several committees have nearly identical names
Compare the committee ID, treasurer, address, state, type, and candidate association. Keep the ID in your notes and use it for every subsequent filing search.
The candidate’s name produces no filing
Confirm the office and election cycle, then search for the authorized committee. A candidate may file under a committee name that does not contain the candidate’s full name, and a state or local candidate may not file with the FEC at all.
The report you expect is not listed
Check the coverage period, filing deadline, and receipt date. A report may be late, posted after the date you checked, filed as an amendment, or outside the FEC’s online historical range.
Totals differ between a dashboard and a PDF
Check whether one value is cycle-to-date while the other covers a single period, and whether an amended filing changed the reported amount. Resolve conflicts by reading the primary filing and, for paper filers, giving the paper document priority.
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Search the candidate’s authorized committee and the cross-referenced PAC, party, independent-expenditure, and communication-cost filings. A candidate committee cannot disclose activity it did not make.
A state or local portal has unfamiliar fields
Read that jurisdiction’s definitions and filing instructions before mapping its fields to federal categories. If the archive does not explain a field or period, ask the filing office rather than inferring a value.
12. A repeatable checklist
- Write down the office, jurisdiction, state, and election cycle.
- Choose the FEC or the appropriate state/local disclosure office.
- Search the candidate, committee, treasurer, or sponsoring organization name.
- Confirm the legal entity with the committee ID and identity fields.
- Open the filing list and select the correct coverage period and report type.
- Read the actual filing schedules for itemized receipts, disbursements, and relevant expenditures.
- Search related committees when the question includes outside spending or activity for or against a candidate.
- Record amendment status, filing date, coverage dates, and whether totals are period or cycle-to-date.
- Check archive coverage and contact the Public Records Office or local filing authority for older documents.
- For bulk analysis, use downloadable data but verify consequential figures against the primary filing.
Following these steps keeps federal, state, and local records separate while giving you an auditable path from a name search to the disclosure document that supports your conclusion.
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