2023-2024 Campaign Expenditures Data
Election Day is finally here but did you know the FEC makes all financial activity for all candidates and campaigns publicly available? It’s all there on the FEC website and is supposed to improve transparency in politics.
Here’s the problem, the FEC data is massive, messy, and you need to be a data analyst to analyze it. It is too big for Excel so you'd have to write python or put this data in a database and write SQL against it. As an example, there are 42M rows of campaign donations and 1.7M rows of campaign expenses from 2023-2024. For the average citizen, there is no way to look at the data.
Times have changed and with Row Zero’s spreadsheet, anyone with spreadsheet skills can easily open and analyze these datasets. You can scroll through row by row and inspect each line item. To open the dataset for yourself, click on the button above or continue reading for some interesting datapoints from the campaign expenditures dataset.
Table of Contents
- Overall Campaign Spend
- Expenditure by Category
- Expenditures by Purpose
- Expenditures by Vendor
- How to access FEC data
- What is the FEC
- Key functions of the FEC
- Where can I find FEC data
- Conclusion
Overall Campaign Spend
According to the FEC data, across 2023 and 2024 Republicans spent $1.9B and Democrats spent $2.8B.
Expenditure by Category
Every transaction is categorized but both parties have huge lists of uncategorized expenses. Republicans had $1.4B (~74%) of uncategorized expenses and Democrats had $2.6B (92%) of uncategorized expenses. These aren't untraceable expenses, they simply don't have an entry in the 'Category' column.
Travel
Republicans spent $12M and Democrats spent $5.3M
Advertising
Republicans spent $89M and Democrats spent $28M
Printing
Both parties spent about the same on ‘Printing’ with Republicans dropping $17M and Democrats spending $16.6M.
All Categories
Expenditures by Purpose
The transactions are also identified with a ‘Purpose’ and a ‘Vendor’ and there are some interesting figures there.
Payroll
Republicans spent $86M and Democrats spent $173M
Pest Control
Both parties spent money getting rid of some sort of pest. Republicans spent $1900 and Democrats spent $290.
Expenditure by Vendor
Ride Sharing
Both parties made use of rideshare apps with both parties preferring Uber to Lyft. Republicans spent $1.2M on Uber and $104k on Lyft. Democrats spent $752k on Uber and $253k on Lyft.
Stationary and Office Supplies
Both parties spent large sums at Staples. It is unclear what one would expect political campaigns to spend at Staples but Republicans spent $198k and Democrats spent $733k. There were no transactions for Dunder Mifflin.
Virtual Meetings
Both parties used Microsoft Office and the Google Workplace but we also see expenses for Zoom and Zoho Meetings. Slack also shows up on both sides of the aisle.
Cloud Provider
Republicans Appear to have used Snowflake with $200k of Snowflake spend. They also spent $782 on ‘Snowflake Donuts'. It’s unclear if the donuts are related to the cloud data warehouse.
Democrats appear to have mainly used AWS, spending $644k over the time period. They also have about $20k in GCP spend.
Neither party reports any spend for Databricks or Azure but Democrats do list $346 spent at Azure Palm Hot Springs, which sounds better than Microsoft’s version. It’s possible both parties outsourced some of the tech work so actual costs could be buried in other vendor expenses.
HR Software
Republicans spent $3.28M on Gusto while Democrats spent $71M. Democrats also spent $82k on Rippling.
To review the data yourself, click here.
How to Access FEC Data
The FEC publishes all campaign data on it's website. You can browse through various categories to find filings, reports, fundraising, spending, loans and debts and other information. For this post, the 'Operating Expenditures' dataset was downloaded. The download is a compressed CSV, which you can upload to Row Zero. For most of the datasets, there is a separate header file you must also download.
Once the files are downloaded, Upload the header file first. When selecting the location, either select 'new sheet' or put it in the top row of the existing sheet. Then upload the data file (the one behind the '2023-2024' link). Then hit import and the data will flow in.
For some of the datasets, like Operating Expenditures, there are columns like CMTE_ID (Committee ID) that are referenced in other datasets. In order to pull in CMTE ID you also need the Committee Master, which contains metadata associated with all committee codes. That dataset references another dataset called Candidate Master File, which contains data, like the candidate name, ID, and other types of metadata. In order to produce the final dataset used in this analysis XLOOKUPS can be used to pull candidate, committee, and party information into the main expenditure dataset.
What is the FEC?
The FEC, or Federal Election Commission, is an independent regulatory agency in the United States responsible for enforcing federal campaign finance laws. It oversees the disclosure of campaign finance information, enforces limits and prohibitions on contributions, and manages the public funding of presidential elections.
Key Functions of the FEC
Regulating Campaign Finance
Ensuring that all campaign spending by political candidates and committees adheres to legal limits and reporting standards.
Disclosure of Campaign Data
Maintaining a public database of campaign finance information, which includes donations, expenditures, and details about political committees and candidates.
Enforcement
Investigating potential violations of campaign finance laws and imposing penalties if necessary.
Public Education
Providing resources and information to help the public understand campaign finance laws and the flow of money in federal elections.
Why does the FEC make campaign data public?
The FEC makes campaign data public to promote transparency and accountability in the political process. Here’s why:
Informed Voters
By disclosing campaign finance data, voters can see who is funding political campaigns and how those funds are spent. This helps the public understand potential influences on candidates and political parties.
Transparency in Campaign Financing
Making data available ensures that contributions and expenditures are visible, which discourages corruption and undue influence from undisclosed or anonymous sources.
Promoting Fairness
Public access to campaign finance information helps to create a level playing field where everyone can track compliance with federal campaign finance laws.
Trust in the Electoral System
Transparency helps build trust in the electoral system by showing that candidates and political committees are accountable for how they raise and use funds.
Research and Analysis
The data can be used by journalists, researchers, and watchdog organizations to analyze trends in campaign financing and uncover patterns that may need further investigation.
Overall, public access to campaign finance data is intended to foster an informed electorate and uphold the integrity of elections in a democratic society.
Where can I find FEC data?
FEC data can be found on it's website https://fec.gov by navigating to Data > Browse Data and clicking on the bulk data tab. You go straight to the FEC bulk data with this link.
Conclusion
Accessing and interpreting FEC campaign finance data is crucial for transparency, but the complexity and volume of the data can be a barrier for most people. Row Zero bridges this gap by making these extensive datasets manageable for anyone with basic spreadsheet skills. With Row Zero, detailed insights from millions of campaign expenditures and contributions are just a few clicks away. Start exploring the data today to gain a better understanding of how campaign funds are spent and what influences political campaigns.
2023-2024 Campaign Expenditures Data