fec.gov

https://www.fec.gov/data/

FEC publishes all data on fec.gov

openFEC API

https://api.open.fec.gov/

• All data you can see on fec.gov is in the API
• REST API with JSON output
• User-friendly documentation
• Still requires some technical skills
• Not suitable for retrieving large data sets

Other ways to get FEC data

Bulk downloads fec.gov → Campaign Finance Data→ Bulk Data https://www.fec.gov/data/browse-data/?tab=bulk-data

• Data updated daily or weekly
• Includes candidate, committee, transaction data as well as all filings updated daily
• Expand each file's accordion to read more about what is contained in the file.
• User-friendly .txt file format

Full database table exports https://www.fec.gov/files/bulk-downloads/index.html then look for /data_dump/ → /schedules/ and README.md

• Highly technical approach
• Need a PostgreSQL database for import
• Data updated weekly
• Full database export of processed contribution & expenditure data
• Import instructions in README.md

Get help with FEC data

• Public records office: [email protected]
• API info: [email protected]
• FEC data google group (not monitored by FEC): https://groups.google.com/g/fec-data
• FECTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/FECTube