Campaign finance data is essential when researching elected officials. As more states have moved to requiring electronic filing of campaign finance reports, data has become much easier to search, has been indexed to allow many different cuts at the data and is downloadable in several formats. However, the approaches to presenting, indexing and providing access to this data vary widely by state.
Several states make it very easy to search and download campaign finance data. In particular, Hawaii, Ohio, Oregon, Texas and Washington have very user friendly interfaces which allow broad searches of contribution and expenditure data and easy downloads in a variety of formats. In Hawaii, for instance, the data is downloadable in 8 formats and can be easily filtered.
The chart below provides summary information about and links to campaign finance data in all 50 states.
| STATE | CAMPAIGN FINANCE CONTRIBUTION DATA | CAMPAIGN FINANCE EXPENDITURE DATA |
| Alabama | Campaign Committees and PACs are searchable by contributor for data from 2013 to present. You cannot search by employer. Full datasets available for download by committee for 2013-2014. 2013-2014 information downloadable to CSV, Excel or PDF Prior to 2013, data is not searchable but scanned images of reports are available. These reports are in pdf format. |
Campaign committees and PACs are searchable by payee for data from 2013 to present. Full datasets available for download by committee for 2013-2014. 2013-2014 information downloadable to CSV, Excel or PDF Prior to 2013, data is not searchable but scanned images of reports are available. These reports are in pdf format. |
| Alaska | Campaign committees, “group” committees and independent expenditures are searchable by contributor and employer for data from 2012 to present. Ballot measures are searchable by contributor name. Full datasets are available to download by committee or group name. Data is downloadable as CSV, DOC or TXT. From 1998 to 2012, information is searchable using two former database sets. The information is downloadable as CSV |
Campaign committees, “group” committees, and independent expenditures are searchable by contributor and employer for data from 2012 to present. Full datasets are available to download by committee or group name. 2012 to present data is downloadable as CSV, DOC or TXT. From 1998 to 2012, information is searchable using two former database sets. The information is downloadable as CSV. |
| Arizona | Can search by contributor name but must be done by year. Cannot download data. Can save pdf copies of filings. | Can download pdfs of reports but cannot search expenditures or download data. |
| Arkansas | Can search by candidate name and download contributor data from 2008 to present in excel using advanced search feature. Can also search by contributor name and download data. Can save pdf copies of filings. |
Can save pdf copies of filings. No search feature for expenditures. |
| California | Can search by candidate/committee, contributor or employer. Data can be downloaded into excel or as a tab delimited file. Can download filings in pdf format. Advanced search interface available in Power Search. |
No expenditure search by candidate/committee or payee. Can obtain full list of expenditures by searching by candidate/committee name and then downloading expenditures by election cycle into excel. |
| Colorado | Can search by candidate name/committee name and download contributor data in excel using advanced search feature. Can also search by contributor name and download data. Can search for images of filings. |
Can search by candidate/committee or payee name and download data in excel using advanced search. |
| Connecticut | Can search by candidate name/committee name and download contributor data in cvs, xls or mdb.. Can also search by contributor name and download data. Can search for images of filings which are searchable and in pdf format. |
Can search by candidate/committee or payee name and download data in cvs, xls or mdb. |
| Delaware | Can search by candidate name/committee name and download contributor data in cvs, xls, pdf or doc. Can also search by contributor name and download data. Can search for filings. These filings are in pdf and are searchable. |
Can search by candidate/committee or payee name and download data in cvs, xls, pdf or doc. |
| Florida | Can search by candidate/committee name or contributor name. Information can be downloaded in tab delimited text file. Returned information is limited to 500 lines so may have to truncate search by date in order to obtain all data. |
Can search by candidate/committee name or payee name. Information can be downloaded in tab delimited text file. Returned information is limited to 500 lines so may have to truncate search by date in order to obtain all data. |
| Georgia | Can search by candidate name/committee name and download contributor data in excel. Can also search by contributor name and employer name and download data. Can search for and download filings. These filings are in pdf. |
Can search by candidate name/committee name or payee and download expenditure data in excel. |
| Hawaii | Can search contributions by candidate/committee, contributor and employer. Data can be downloaded in 8 formats. Information provided as dataset so many ways to sort or define data. Filings are available for download. |
Can search expenditure by candidate/committee name, payee, address etc. Information provided as dataset so many ways to sort or define data. Data can be downloaded in 8 formats. |
| Idaho | Can search by candidate/committee name for full list of contributions. Information is not downloadable but is provided in list which could be copied and pasted into excel. Must search by year. Can search by contributor name. Information is not downloadable but is provided in a list which could be copied and pasted into excel. Must search by year. |
Can search by candidate/committee name for full list of expenditures. Information is not downloadable but is provided in list which could be copied and pasted into excel. Must search by year. Cannot search by payee name. |
| Illinois | Can search contributions by candidate/committee, contributor and employer. Results can be downloaded to excel or tab delimited file. | Can search by payee and by beneficiary. Information is downloadable to excel or a tab delimited file. |
| Indiana | Can search contributions by candidate/committee, and contributor. Results can be downloaded to csv, xls or pdf. | Can search by payee or expending committee name. Results can be downloaded to csv, xls or pdf. |
| Iowa | Can search contributions by candidate/committee, and contributor. Results can be downloaded to csv. Can also search and view pdfs of filings. |
Can search by payee or expending committee name. Results can be downloaded to csv. |
| Kansas | Can search contributions by candidate/committee and contributor. Results cannot be downloaded but are presented as a text table so can be copied into excel. PDFs of filings are available and are organized by election type and year on the website. The pdfs are searchable. |
Expenditures are not itemized or searchable. You can obtain expenditure totals in several general categories. |
| Kentucky | Can search contributions by candidate/committee, contributor or employer. Data can be extracted as a delimited file. Can also search by candidate name for reports. Can download pdf of reports an can also download contribution information from reports submitted electronically. This information is in xls format. |
Expenditure information is only available for electronic filers. It can be accessed by searching filings by candidate name and then clicking into the reports. |
| Louisiana | Can search contributions by candidate or contributor. Data can be downloaded in csv file. Can also search scanned images of reports and electronically filed reports. Data from electronic filings can be exported into xls. |
Can search expenditures by recipient or candidate/committee. Results are downloadable to xls. |
| Maine | Can search by candidate/committee, contributor an employer. Data can be downloaded as csv, xls, pdf. Report images are available for download in pdf format. |
Can search expenditures by recipient or candidate/committee. Results are downloadable to csv, xls, pdf. |
| Maryland | Can search contributions by candidate/committee and contributor and download data in csv, xls, pdf, doc. Can search an download filings in pdf. |
Can search expenditures by candidate/committee an by payee and download data in csv, xls, pdf, doc. |
| Massachusetts | Can search contributions by candidate/committee, contributor or employer and download data to a text delimited file. Can search for and download pdfs of reports filed by candidates an committees. |
Can search expenditures by filer an vendor names an download data to a text delimited file. |
| Michigan | Can search contributions by candidate/committee, contributor, or employer and download into xls. Can search for and review filings. Filings can be saved into pdf format. |
Can search by expenditures by candidate/committee or payee an download into xls. |
| Minnesota | Can search contributions by candidate/committee or contributor. Data is downloadable to csv. Can search for an review filings. Filings are downloadable as pdf. |
No expenditure search. Can view expenditures in pdfed reports. |
| Mississippi | Can search by candidate/committee name and review pdfs of filings. No contributor search. Cannot download data. | No expenditure search. Can view expenditures in pdfed reports. |
| Missouri | Can search by candidate/committee, contributor or employer. Data downloadable in xls. Can search by candidate for images of reports. Can download reports as pdf. |
Can be searched by candidate/committee name or payee. Data downloadable in xls. |
| Montana | Can search by candidate/committee or contributor. Information is not downloadable. Can review in groups of 100 and could do a copy paste. Can search for and review campaign finance reports. |
Can search expenditures by candidate/committee or payee. Information is not downloadable. Can review in groups of 100 and could do a copy paste. |
| Nebraska | No search of contributions by name. Can search for and review campaign finance reports. |
No search of expenditures by name. Can search for and review campaign finance reports. |
| Nevada | Can search candidate/committee or contributor. Information is downloadable as csv. Can search for and review campaign finance reports. |
Can search expenditures by payee or payer. Information is downloadable as csv. |
| New Hampshire | You can search by contributor name but data returned is only from candidates who have opted to use the electronic filing system. Data is downloadable in excel. You can search for and review Statements of Receipts and Expenditures. These can be downloaded into pdf or xls. |
You can search for and review Statements of Receipts and Expenditures. These can be downloaded into pdf or xls. |
| New Jersey | You can search by candidate/committee or contributor name and download data into excel. You can search for campaign filings which are available in pdf. |
There is not a expenditure search function. You can do a “quick data download” of all expenditures by gubernatorial candidates. |
| New Mexico | Can search by candidate/committee or contributor name and download data in xls or pdf. Can search for and download in pdf full disclosure reports. |
No expenditure search. |
| New York | Can search by candidate/committee or contributor name. Information provided is tabular but not downloadable. Could be copied and pasted into a file. Can download pdf of campaign disclosure filings. |
Can search expenditures by payor or payee name. Information provided is tabular but not downloadable. Could be copied and pasted into a file. |
| North Carolina | Can search by candidate/committee name or contributor name. Information is downloadable as csv. Can download pdf of campaign disclosure filings. |
Can search expenditures by payee or candidate/committee name. Information can be downloaded as csv. |
| North Dakota | Can search by candidate/committee, contributor or employer. Data is downloadable in xls. | Can search by payee or committee/candidate name. Data is downloadable in xls. |
| Ohio | Can search by candidate/committee, contributor or employer. Data is downloadable in xls. Large downloads available in csv format through FTP site. |
Can search by payee or committee/candidate name. Data is downloadable in xls. Large downloads available in csv format through FTP site. |
| Oklahoma | Can search by candidate/committee, contributor or employer. Data is downloadable to csv. Can download large raw data files. Can review and print complete campaign filings. |
Can search expenditures by vendor or committee. Data displayed in tabular format but is not downloadable. |
| Oregon | Can search by candidate/committee, contributor or employer. Data downloadable as xls. | Can search expenditures by payee or committee and download data into xls. |
| Pennsylvania | Can search contributions by committee/candidate, contributor or employer. Data can be exported into excel. Must use internet explorer. |
Can search contributions by committee/candidate, or payee. Data can be exported into excel. Must use internet explorer. |
| Rhode Island | Can search by committee/candidate, contributor or employer. Data can be downloaded in comma delimited format. Can download pdfs of filings. |
Can search by committee or payee. Data can be downloaded in comma delimited format. |
| South Carolina | Can search by candidate/committee name or contributor. Data can be downloaded in csv. Can search for filings, obtain summary information and download data from all filings. |
Can search expenditures by candidate/committee name. Data is downloadable as csv. |
| South Dakota | Can search by candidate/committee or contributor name from 2011 to present. Prior year data is not searchable but filings are available for download. Data is not downloadable but is presented in tabular format. | No expenditure search. |
| Tennessee | Can search by candidate/committee, contributor or employer. Data is downloadable to csv or excel. Can also search by report name and download all data into csv or excel. |
Can search expenditures by candidate or vendor. Data is downloadable to csv or excel. |
| Texas | Can search by candidate/committee, contributor or employer. Data downloadable as excel or html. Can download pdfs of campaign reports. |
Can search expenditures by candidate/committee or vendor name. Data downloadable as excel or html. |
| Utah | Can download into excel data from filed reports which includes contributions. Can download into pdf filed reports. There is no search function by contributor name. |
Can download into excel data from filed reports which includes expenditures. There is no search function by payee name. |
| Vermont | Can search by committee/candidate or contributor in electronically filed reports and download data as csv or excel. Electronic filing is not required until next election cycle so data is not complete. Can search for and download pdfs of all filings, electronic and paper filed. |
Can search by committee/candidate or payee name in electronically filed reports and download data as csv or excel. Electronic filings is not required until next election cycle so data is not complete. |
| Virginia | Can search by candidate/committee name and download pdf or xml of reports. List in report is returned in tabular format so could be copied into xls. Through the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonprofit, you can search by candidate/committee name, contributor name or employer. Data is not downloadable but is provided in tabular format. |
Through the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonprofit, you can search by candidate/committee or vendor. Data is not downloadable but is provided in tabular format. |
| Washington | Can search by candidate/committee, contributor or employer. Data can be downloaded as pdf or xls. Pdfs of reports are available for download. |
Can search by candidate/committee or vendor. Data can be downloaded as pdf or xls. |
| Washington, DC | Can search by candidate/committee, contributor or employer. Data can be downloaded as pdf or xls. | Can search by candidate/committee or vendor. Data can be downloaded as pdf or xls. |
| West Virginia | Can search by candidate name to access electronically filed reports. Electronic filing is not required. Data is not downloadable. No contributor search. |
No expenditure search. |
| Wisconsin | Can search by candidate/committee or contributor. Data is downloadable into xls, doc or csv. Can download pdfs of reports. |
Can search by candidate/committee or payee. Data is downloadable into xls, csv or doc. |
| Wyoming | Can search by candidate/committee or contributor. Data can be exported as a tab delimited file. Can download pdfs of reports. |
Can search by candidate/committee or payee. Data can be exported as a tab delimited file. |