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Project Curia

Financing

U.S. Senator · MT

Steve Daines

RepublicanSenate Class 2Term through January 2027

Funding profile · 2015–2020 term

36% of the money Daines raised came from small donors.

More grassroots-funded than 82% of the Senate.

Daines raised $33.3M across the full six-year Senate term (2015–2020), and ended the period with $108K cash on hand. Here is where the money came from.

36%from small donors
Small donors
36%$11.9M
Large donors
47%$15.5M
Bundled
1%$0.3M
PACs
12%$3.9M
Other
5%$1.7M

Against the senate

How Daines compares to the typical member.

Small-donor share
36%vs 19% senate median
PAC share
12%vs 14% senate median

Who has a stake in Daines

The organizations behind the money.

Daines's largest organized backing comes from Club For Growth. That counts the group's own PAC check plus the individual donations it bundled, not just the direct check.

$3.6M in PAC money not itemized by group

Daines collected $3.6M of PAC money through a joint fundraising committee, which pools contributions and transfers them as a lump sum. It is counted in the organized total above, but FEC filings do not itemize which PACs it came from at the campaign level, so it is not attributed to a named organization here.

Money organized for Daines

Club For Growth

$107K

Club for Growth's PAC and super PAC, backing anti-tax, small-government conservatives, often against Republican incumbents in primaries.

Who it funds, across Congress

0% Democrats · 100% Republicans · $2.7M to 39 members

Outside spending, by party

Spent $15.9M to elect Republicans; $27.5M to defeat Democrats.

Senate Conservatives Fund$105K

The Senate Conservatives Fund, a hard-right super PAC that backs insurgent Republicans against the party establishment.

Who it funds, across Congress

0% Democrats · 100% Republicans · $2.2M to 18 members

Outside spending, by party

Spent $8.5M to elect Republicans; $375K to defeat Democrats.

NORPAC$32K

A pro-Israel political action committee that bundles individual donations to candidates it judges supportive of the U.S. relationship with Israel.

Who it funds, across Congress

40% Democrats · 59% Republicans · $2.2M to 82 members

Susan B Anthony List Candidate Fund$21K

Who it funds, across Congress

0% Democrats · 100% Republicans · $401K to 60 members

Outside spending, by party

Spent $47K to elect Republicans.

Republican Jewish Coalition PAC$15K

Who it funds, across Congress

0% Democrats · 100% Republicans · $935K to 72 members

What is organized money?

An organization reaches a member two ways. Its own PAC writes a direct check. And it bundles: it gathers individual donations from its supporters and routes them through its conduit. Both count here as one “organized” total. The bundled part is already inside the individual giving shown in the funding mix above. Here it is regrouped by the organization that gathered it, so you can see who did the organizing. Dainesreceived so many small earmarked donations that these figures count only the largest ones. Read every total as “at least.”

The same money, by industry

Which industries have a stake.

The same organized money, grouped by the industry of the organization that moved it. It shows the interests behind Daines's backing, not just the individual groups.

$213KIdeological
$52KHealth
$50KFinance
$33KEnergy
$32KPro-Israel

Plus $118K from organizations whose FEC name did not sort into an industry.

The money spent about Daines

Spent for or against.

Outside groups also spend on their own to elect or defeat Daines, running ads for or against the race. This money never passes through the campaign, so it is counted apart from the money organized for Daines.

All outside groups12% to help, 88% to hurt$53.1M
  1. DSCC$18.4M
    To help Daines
    To hurt Daines
    $18.4M

    The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the party committee for electing Senate Democrats.

  2. Senate Majority PAC$16.7M
    To help Daines
    To hurt Daines
    $16.7M

    The super PAC aligned with Senate Democratic leadership.

  3. LCV Victory Fund$4.3M
    To help Daines
    To hurt Daines
    $4.3M

    The League of Conservation Voters' super PAC, spending on environmental-minded candidates.

  4. Americans For Prosperity Action$2.8M
    To help Daines
    $2.8M
    To hurt Daines
    $7K

    Americans for Prosperity Action, the super PAC of the Koch network, spending independently for mostly conservative candidates.

  5. Montana Hunters And Anglers Leadership Fund$2.0M
    To help Daines
    To hurt Daines
    $2.0M

FEC filings, 2015–2020 term · as of August 2026 · showing the top 5 funders of 139 organizations with a stake

About this data

FEC-disclosed receipts for the 2015–2020 term. This is the disclosed money only. Spending by outside groups that do not reveal their donors, the dark money that set a record in 2024, never appears in these figures.

Every percentage here is a share of all receipts, not of individual contributions only. So the small-donor share counts transfers, loans, and other money in its base, and can read higher than figures that divide only by individual money.

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 Daines stands