Following the money requires following its categories

Historical report — The FEC’s October 1, 2026 summary put congressional candidates’ receipts at $2.8 billion and disbursements at $2 billion for January 2025–June 2026. It described an 18-month reporting period, rather than final election-cycle totals. ^[1]

Tracing an individual candidate requires another distinction. The FEC’s all-candidates file combines authorized committees and warns that transfers between them can be counted twice. Its documentation also says coverage periods can differ during primaries. A comparison needs matching periods and attention to transfers; movement among a candidate’s committees is not fresh outside support. ^[2]

Donor-level analysis has a different boundary. The contributions-by-individuals file describes itself as a subset of itemized disclosures. Since 2015, its threshold has been more than $200 accumulated over the election cycle for candidate committees, but over the calendar year for parties and PACs. It therefore cannot stand alone as a census of all small donors. ^[3]

Independent expenditures describe a further route to influencing an election. FEC guidance defines them as communications expressly advocating a clearly identified candidate’s election or defeat, without the specified consultation or cooperation with campaigns or parties. That category concerns who controls the communication; it is not another name for a contribution received by a candidate. ^[4]

About this item: Retrospective report. No first-hand reporting or independent testing is claimed. Corrections policy.