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Project Curia

Three ways to watch Congress

Tracking Financing in Congress.

Bills

What Congress votes on, in plain language, and when a yes bundled unrelated measures together.

Trading

The stocks members trade, including in the industries their own committees oversee.

FinancingYou are here

Who funds each member's campaigns, the money behind the vote.

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

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
32%
median from PACs
$3.8B
raised across recent campaigns
532
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 32% 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

28%from small donors
Small donors
28%$610.4M
Large donors
50%$1077.5M
Bundled
2%$35.2M
PACs
12%$253.9M
Other
9%$187.7M

Republicans

$1.6Braised

20%from small donors
Small donors
20%$333.7M
Large donors
39%$641.6M
Bundled
2%$27.7M
PACs
19%$305.9M
Other
20%$321.8M

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.

1–5 of 3704

By industry

Which industries organize the most.

Every organized dollar, direct PAC checks plus bundled donations, grouped by the industry of the organization that moved it, across all of Congress.

Finance & Insurance

$49.1M

Pro-Israel

$46.5M

Health & Pharma

$40.5M

Labor

$39.7M

Leadership & Ideological

$29.1M

Plus $166.6M from organizations whose FEC name did not sort into an industry.

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.

  1. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. House Majority PAC›$90.3M
    Helps Democrats
    Elect D
    $9.6M
    Defeat R
    $80.7M
    Helps Republicans
    Elect R
    —
    Defeat D
    —

    The super PAC aligned with House Democratic leadership.

    Ran independent spending in 33 races

  8. Congressional Leadership Fund›$80.8M
    Helps Democrats
    Elect D
    $2K
    Defeat R
    —
    Helps Republicans
    Elect R
    $7.6M
    Defeat D
    $73.2M

    The super PAC aligned with House Republican leadership.

    Ran independent spending in 41 races

  9. 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

  10. 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

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.

Rank by
Chamber

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.

84%want dark money disclosed

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