The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) recently issued a summary of contributions and expenditures reported between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2018. The FEC summarized reported money to and from political action committees (PACs), party committees, 2018 congressional candidates and 2020 presidential candidates, as well as independent expenditures and other reportable communications. The FEC statistics reveal that congressional candidates raised $2.8 billion and spent $2.7 billion during the two-year reporting period. Political parties raised $1.6 billion and spent $1.5 billion, and PACs outpaced all categories, raising $4.7 billion and spending $4.6 billion. Although it is still early, the 51 individuals who have already declared themselves as 2020 presidential candidates reported a total of $75.3 million in contributions and $63.1 million in expenditures as of December 31, 2018. Reported independent expenditures totaled another $1.3 billion.
Additional details within the summary include a comparison of congressional candidates’ financial activity from 2008-2018, the receipts for individual political parties, as well as a breakdown of political action committee figures by type.
