Watching the government
Six ways to watch Congress
Tracking Financing in Congress.
What Congress votes on, in plain language, and when a yes bundled unrelated measures together.
The stocks members trade, including in the industries their own committees oversee.
Who funds each member's campaigns, the money behind the vote.
Who pays to work the bills, the firms that file the work, and whose desks that money reaches.
Who pays to fly members and their staff, and where those trips actually land.
One letter per member: their funding, their trading, and how they back their own voters.
A campaign funded by a few big donors and PACs answers to different people than one funded by many small donors. We show where every member's money comes from, straight from their FEC filings, and where the money that stays hidden comes in.
Look up a member
How to read this
Money in politics is not one number. It moves through a few separate channels, and the law treats each one differently. Some goes straight to a candidate’s own campaign. Some is spent near a race by groups the candidate cannot legally touch. Some never touches an election at all, and pays instead to influence the officeholder once in office. Every finance chart on this site measures one of those channels, never the whole.
What the filings can't show
$1.9 billion in dark money flowed through the 2024 election.
A record, nearly double the 2020 total. It comes from groups that spend on elections without naming their donors. Roughly $1.3 billion of it reached super PACs by way of nonprofits that never have to say who gave it, so the money is public but the source is not.
None of this shows up in the numbers below. Those cover only the money each member had to disclose. The rest is the part nobody gets to see.
Source: Brennan Center for Justice, 2024 federal races.
The disclosed money · recent campaigns
Most of Congress runs on big money.
- 6%
- median from small donors
- 31%
- median from PACs
- $3.8B
- raised across recent campaigns
- 537
- members with data
For the typical member, small donors (those giving under $200 in total) are a minority of the money. The median member draws 31% of receipts from PACs and far more from large donors than from small ones.
By party
How each party raises.
Every disclosed dollar each caucus raised in its members' most recent campaigns, pooled and read as one mix.
Democrats
$2.2Braised
- Small donors
- 28%$611.1M
- Large donors
- 50%$1081.4M
- Bundled
- 2%$35.4M
- PACs
- 12%$255.5M
- Other
- 9%$188.8M
Republicans
$1.6Braised
- Small donors
- 20%$333.9M
- Large donors
- 39%$641.4M
- Bundled
- 2%$27.1M
- PACs
- 19%$305.4M
- Other
- 20%$321.6M
Across Congress
The organizations that reach the most members.
Organized money is an organization's PAC checks plus the individual donations it bundles to a campaign. Money spent independently for or against a member is a separate story. Each member's money is counted over their most recent campaign: a two-year cycle for a House member, a full six-year term for a senator. An organization's cross-Congress total blends both windows. 2 member records are partial, so reach and dollar totals are floors.
The money spent about members
The biggest outside spenders.
Independent expenditures: money groups spend on their own to elect or defeat members, running ads for or against a race. It never passes through the campaign, so it is counted apart from the money organized for members. 2 member records are partial, so these totals are floors.
Senate Leadership Fund›$331.7M
Helps Democrats- Elect D
- -
- Defeat R
- -
Helps Republicans- Elect R
- $14.2M
- Defeat D
- $317.5M
The super PAC aligned with Senate Republican leadership.
Ran independent spending in 19 races
Senate Majority PAC›$181.9M
Helps Democrats- Elect D
- $24.8M
- Defeat R
- $157.1M
Helps Republicans- Elect R
- -
- Defeat D
- -
The super PAC aligned with Senate Democratic leadership.
Ran independent spending in 18 races
Winsenate›$162.1M
Helps Democrats- Elect D
- $4.2M
- Defeat R
- $157.8M
Helps Republicans- Elect R
- -
- Defeat D
- -
A super PAC spending to elect Senate Democrats.
Ran independent spending in 9 races
Americans For Prosperity Action›$106.9M
Helps Democrats- Elect D
- -
- Defeat R
- $291K
Helps Republicans- Elect R
- $86.6M
- Defeat D
- $19.8M
Americans for Prosperity Action, the super PAC of the Koch network, spending independently for mostly conservative candidates.
Ran independent spending in 57 races
NRSC›$96.4M
Helps Democrats- Elect D
- $1.2M
- Defeat R
- -
Helps Republicans- Elect R
- $1.7M
- Defeat D
- $93.5M
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the party committee for electing Senate Republicans.
Ran independent spending in 18 races
DSCC›$94.6M
Helps Democrats- Elect D
- $1.1M
- Defeat R
- $93.5M
Helps Republicans- Elect R
- -
- Defeat D
- -
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the party committee for electing Senate Democrats.
Ran independent spending in 10 races
House Majority PAC›$90.6M
Helps Democrats- Elect D
- $9.9M
- Defeat R
- $80.7M
Helps Republicans- Elect R
- -
- Defeat D
- -
The super PAC aligned with House Democratic leadership.
Ran independent spending in 34 races
Congressional Leadership Fund›$86.4M
Helps Democrats- Elect D
- $2K
- Defeat R
- -
Helps Republicans- Elect R
- $7.6M
- Defeat D
- $78.8M
The super PAC aligned with House Republican leadership.
Ran independent spending in 42 races
Defend American Jobs (Crypto)›$55.2M
Helps Democrats- Elect D
- -
- Defeat R
- -
Helps Republicans- Elect R
- $55.2M
- Defeat D
- -
A crypto-industry super PAC (part of the Fairshake network) spending to elect candidates friendly to digital assets.
Ran independent spending in 17 races
American Crossroads›$53.5M
Helps Democrats- Elect D
- -
- Defeat R
- -
Helps Republicans- Elect R
- $895K
- Defeat D
- $52.7M
A Republican super PAC co-founded by Karl Rove, spending independently in Senate and presidential races.
Ran independent spending in 3 races
Senate Leadership Fund›--$14.2M$317.5M$331.7M
Senate Leadership Fund
The super PAC aligned with Senate Republican leadership.
Ran independent spending in 19 races
Senate Majority PAC›$24.8M$157.1M--$181.9M
Senate Majority PAC
The super PAC aligned with Senate Democratic leadership.
Ran independent spending in 18 races
Winsenate›$4.2M$157.8M--$162.1M
Winsenate
A super PAC spending to elect Senate Democrats.
Ran independent spending in 9 races
Americans For Prosperity Action›-$291K$86.6M$19.8M$106.9M
Americans For Prosperity Action
Americans for Prosperity Action, the super PAC of the Koch network, spending independently for mostly conservative candidates.
Ran independent spending in 57 races
NRSC›$1.2M-$1.7M$93.5M$96.4M
NRSC
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the party committee for electing Senate Republicans.
Ran independent spending in 18 races
DSCC›$1.1M$93.5M--$94.6M
DSCC
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the party committee for electing Senate Democrats.
Ran independent spending in 10 races
House Majority PAC›$9.9M$80.7M--$90.6M
House Majority PAC
The super PAC aligned with House Democratic leadership.
Ran independent spending in 34 races
Congressional Leadership Fund›$2K-$7.6M$78.8M$86.4M
Congressional Leadership Fund
The super PAC aligned with House Republican leadership.
Ran independent spending in 42 races
Defend American Jobs (Crypto)›--$55.2M-$55.2M
Defend American Jobs (Crypto)
A crypto-industry super PAC (part of the Fairshake network) spending to elect candidates friendly to digital assets.
Ran independent spending in 17 races
American Crossroads›--$895K$52.7M$53.5M
American Crossroads
A Republican super PAC co-founded by Karl Rove, spending independently in Senate and presidential races.
Ran independent spending in 3 races
Columns show spending on Democratic and Republican races. A group that also spent on an independent's race carries that money in its total but in no column, so the four figures may not sum to the total.
Most grassroots-funded
Small donors.
Most organized money
Organized.
Self-funding is the candidate's own money put into the campaign, from FEC filings. A member who funds their own race answers less to donors for it.
Look up any member’s funding in the full index, by state.
Support for requiring the groups that spend on elections to name their donors, across both parties. Congress has not passed the DISCLOSE Act.
Where each member stands