Money words, in plain English

Political spending where the donors are never named. The money goes through nonprofit groups that can spend on elections without saying who gave it.

We do not put a number on this one. Our records show what was spent, but not which of it came from donors who were never named — so any figure here would be a guess.

Money spent to help or hurt a candidate by a group the candidate does not control. It never touches the candidate's own bank account.

It has a direction, and people forget the second half. Some of it is spent to get someone elected, and some is spent to get them beaten.

spent by outside groups in the 2026 cycle

Outside money used to attack a candidate rather than support one. It counts as spending on that race, but it is trying to make you vote the other way.

of that outside money was spent AGAINST a candidate, not for one — $48M

A group that can raise and spend unlimited money to support or attack candidates, as long as it does not give the money to a campaign or work with one directly.

The limit is on closeness, not size. It may raise as much as it likes, but it may not hand the money to a campaign or plan with one. A regular PAC can give straight to a campaign, but only a limited amount.

A political action committee. A group — often run by a company, union or trade body — that collects money from people and gives it to campaigns.

given to campaigns by PACs this cycle

Everything a campaign has taken in. Donations from people, money from PACs, party money and the candidate's own money, added together.

raised by everyone running in 2026

The share of a campaign's money that came from people rather than from PACs, parties, or the candidate themselves.

of that came from people, not PACs or parties

What a campaign has left in the bank. Money raised is everything that came in; this is the part not yet spent.

still in the bank across all campaigns

What a campaign spent. Adverts, staff, travel, polling, rent — everything paid out.

A candidate paying for their own campaign. There is no limit on how much of their own money a candidate may spend.

Someone who collects donations from lots of other people and hands them over together. Each gift stays under the legal limit, but arriving as one stack makes that person worth far more to a campaign than any single donor.

A type of nonprofit, named after the tax rule that creates it. It is supposed to exist for social welfare, and it may spend on elections without naming its donors. This is the usual route for dark money.

The form a company files four times a year saying how much it spent lobbying Congress and the government, and on which issues. Required by the Lobbying Disclosure Act.

The figure is what the company spent on lobbying in total for that quarter. It is never what was spent on one particular bill.

spent on lobbying by 21,722 companies

The person who currently holds the seat and is running to keep it.

sitting members are running again, of 3,809 candidates

A seat with nobody defending it, because the current officeholder is retiring, running for something else, or has left.

seats have nobody defending them

The 2010 Supreme Court decision that let companies, unions and groups spend unlimited money on elections, as long as they spend it themselves instead of handing it to a campaign.

Almost everything else on this page follows from it. Super PACs were created by it, and dark money grew after it.

The legal name for money spent for or against a candidate by someone the candidate does not control. It is the same money this site calls outside spending.

The 2012 law that makes members of Congress report their share dealing within 45 days, so the public can see what they trade while in office.

share trades disclosed by 80 members of Congress

What someone owns minus what they owe. Members of Congress report theirs in wide bands rather than exact amounts, so every figure on this site is an estimate built from those bands.

A band can be very wide - an asset worth anywhere from $1m to $5m is reported as one entry - so treat a net-worth figure as a range, never a precise number.

officials we hold a sourced net-worth estimate for

An arrangement where someone hands their investments to a manager and is not told what is held or traded, so they cannot favour their own holdings while in office.

People moving between government jobs and the industries those jobs oversee - a staffer who leaves to lobby, or a company executive who takes a post regulating their old industry.

The most one person may legally give straight to a campaign. It is set per election, so a primary and a general election each have their own limit.

The limit applies to money given TO a campaign. There is no limit on what an outside group may spend on its own.

A gift of something other than cash - office space, polling, a mailing list, staff time. It counts against the same limit as money, valued at what it would have cost.

A second fund a politician sets up alongside their campaign, used mainly to give money to other candidates. It is how support inside a party is built and paid for.

An everyday word for a large amount of unspent campaign money. It is not a legal term - the figure behind it is cash on hand.

The two-year period the Federal Election Commission counts money in. It runs from just after one election to the next, so a figure for this cycle is a running total, not a final one.

is the cycle every figure on this site counts