How campaign money is counted

Methodology · Elections · Rules published October 2026

Every candidate on a CLR elections page gets the same card: where the campaign’s money came from, how much it raised and spent, its cash on hand and debts, its largest givers, and money that outside groups spent for or against it. These are the rules behind that card. They are the same for every candidate, in every party, in every race. Measuring everyone the same way is what makes the card a disclosure rather than a verdict. CLR does not say where a candidate stands.

Why the card never says “corporations gave $X”

Corporations cannot give money directly to candidates in federal races (FEC: who can and can’t contribute) or in Texas races (Texas Election Code §253.094). Corporate money reaches candidates in two other ways:

1. Through PACs. A company or trade group sets up a PAC, the PAC raises money from employees or members, and the PAC gives to candidates. These gifts appear on the candidate’s own report, and the card counts them as business, labor or issue PACs.
2. Through outside spending. Some groups spend money for or against a candidate without giving it to the candidate. That money never appears on the candidate’s report. The card shows it in its own box and never adds it to the candidate’s totals.

A single person writing a large personal check is an individual on paper. The card lists the largest givers by name with the city, state, employer and occupation they reported, so a reader can see who they are.

Where the money came from: the parts of the bar

Classification is deterministic. Fields the filing authority supplies decide first (the FEC’s entity type and committee organization type; the Texas Ethics Commission’s contributor and filer codes). For Texas PACs, the published PAC sponsor lookup below decides next. No model and no editor guesses a bucket.

“Raised” is the filing’s own total: for federal candidates, the FEC’s total receipts. The bar shows where that money came from, counted before refunds, with “Other money in” for receipts that are not contributions, so the parts of the bar add up exactly to “Raised”. Refunds to donors are listed separately, under the bar: “$X was later refunded to donors.” Before a card is published, the parts must add up to “Raised”. If they do not, nothing is published for that candidate until the difference is found.

For Texas candidates, “Other money in” counts interest, dividends, gains, credits and other true income, the same as for federal candidates. Return of principal (a Treasury bill or CD maturing, the sale of an investment, a refunded deposit, a refund of the campaign’s own payment) is left out, because it is the campaign’s own money coming back.

Texas filings give these credits no category, only a description, so each one is placed by the words in it: interest, dividends and gains count; maturities, redemptions, principal, deposits, refunds and sales are left out; and anything the description doesn’t settle (reimbursements, adjustments, voided checks, blank descriptions) is left out too, rather than guessed in.

The bar adds up to “Raised” for every card. The amounts shown for its parts are rounded to whole dollars so that they add up exactly to the “Raised” figure shown: each part is rounded down, and the dollars left over go one at a time to the parts with the largest remainders (largest-remainder rounding; on a tie, the part listed first in the table above). Percentages are rounded the same way, so they add up to 100%. A part above zero whose share rounds to nothing is shown as “less than 1%”.

The plain sentence that opens every card

Every card opens with one plain sentence, before any dollar figure, percent, ballot position or filer ID. A fixed rule writes it from the same figures as the bar. No editor writes it, and it uses no adjectives.

For a campaign with money in the bar:

• If the largest part of the bar is 50% or more: “Most of this campaign’s money came from [part].” Otherwise: “The biggest share of this campaign’s money came from [part].”
• If the second-largest part is 10% or more, the sentence adds “; [part] was (or were) the next biggest source” before the full stop.
• Unclassified and “Other money in” are never named as a source. When Unclassified is 25% or more, a second sentence follows: “A large share couldn’t be sorted under the published rules.”
• If none of the money could be placed by the rules, the sentence is “None of this campaign’s money could be sorted under the published rules.”
• Shares are of the money in the bar. When two parts are equal, the one listed first in the table above is named first.

The parts are named in these words:

After the sentence comes one line of figures (raised, cash on hand, and the date of the latest report). Right after it come any notes the card carries: a date note when the filer’s printed dates need explaining, and short notes such as a filing fee a PAC paid directly, each with a link to the filing. Then the bar. Cards without figures open with a plain sentence too:

• No report on file: “No campaign finance report is on file yet.” with a link to the authority’s search page.
• A report showing no contributions: “This campaign reported no contributions this cycle.” That is a filed zero, so its figures show $0.
• County reports still being entered: “Harris County has these reports as scans; we’re entering the figures now — tap to see the reports.”
• Appraisal district board candidates with no report found: “No campaign finance report found at the Harris County Clerk, where appraisal-district candidates file under a 2025 state law.” with links to the law and to the County Clerk’s search. In Harris County these candidates file with the County Clerk under HB 3575 (89th Legislature, 2025), which moved their campaign treasurer appointments to the county clerk (Election Code §252.005(2)(C)). Candidates who have filed show their reports like other county candidates.
• Propositions: the race opens with which committees filed for and against, or “No committee has filed for or against this proposition in the records we checked,” followed by the name of the district where such committees file their reports. Each side with no committee reads “No committee has filed for this side in the records we checked.”

An amount above $0 and under $1 is shown as “less than $1”, never “$0”; it counts as $0 when the parts are added up. Percentages on a card are whole numbers that add up to 100%. A part of the bar above zero whose share rounds to nothing shows as “less than 1%”. A part worth nothing is left out of the bar and its legend; it is never shown as “0%”.

Committees that support only one candidate

A specific-purpose committee registered with the Texas Ethics Commission to support a single candidate, and no other, counts as that candidate’s money: its contributions are added to the candidate’s own account in the total and the bar, and money moved between the candidate’s account and that committee is counted once. Each such committee is also listed on the card with its own figures and a link to its reports. Spending by groups the candidate does not control is shown separately and never added.

A committee is matched to a candidate only when all of these are true in the Commission’s records:

• the committee is active;
• its registration names this candidate, with the position “support”;
• it names no other candidate; and
• it filed a report covering 2025 or later.

The rules, one by one

• This cycle. “Raised this cycle” is the filing’s own total of money received from January 1, 2025 through the end of the campaign’s latest report (for federal candidates, total receipts), counted before refunds. The same window applies to every candidate, federal, state or county. Cash on hand and debts come from the latest report.
• Size bands. Gifts from people are sorted by each donor’s total to that candidate this cycle: small donors are $200 or less, the middle band is more than $200 and less than $1,000, and the top band is $1,000 or more. The same bands apply to Texas and federal candidates. For Texas candidates, one donor is the same name and ZIP code across the candidate’s reports. For federal candidates, one donor is the same full name plus employer or occupation, with reattributions and redesignations applied across the whole cycle.
• Self-funding. Money from the candidate includes loans the candidate made to the campaign. A loan that is paid back is shown as repaid, not erased.
• Refunds. The bar counts money before refunds. Contributions later refunded or returned to donors are shown on their own line under the bar.
• Unclassified. Anything no rule can place is shown as Unclassified, with its total.
• Outside spending. Independent expenditures reported to the FEC are shown separately, as money spent supporting and money spent opposing, with the largest spenders. They are never added to the bar or the totals. Texas records of direct campaign expenditures do not say whether the spending was for or against a candidate, so for Texas candidates the card says so and shows no figure.
• Where givers live. The shares from inside the district, inside Texas and out of state come from the ZIP codes of named individual givers. When the source data leaves out givers’ addresses, the card says so instead of showing a share.
• Ballot order. Candidates appear in official ballot order, which is set by law. Never alphabetical, never by money. The order carries no CLR judgment.
• No report, no zero. A candidate with no report on file is shown as “No campaign finance report is on file yet,” with the date it was checked and a link to the authority’s search page. A missing figure is never shown as $0.
• Every number has a receipt. Each figure links to the filing it came from: the FEC filing, the Texas Ethics Commission report, or the county’s scanned report. A top giver links to the report or reports that list that giver’s gifts, with the page number when there is one.
• Federal limits and giver totals. In the 2025–26 cycle, one person can give a federal candidate up to $3,500 per election. The primary, a runoff and the general election each count as a separate election, so the same person can give up to $3,500 for each one (FEC contribution limits). A top giver’s line shows the campaign’s own reported total for that giver. That total covers the whole cycle, so it can include gifts meant for other elections, such as money given for a runoff that was never held. It can also include money that was later refunded or moved to another giver or another election, including amounts the campaign marks to be refunded or moved in its next report. A total above $3,500, or above $3,500 times the number of elections, does not by itself mean any law was broken, and CLR does not say whether any gift did. Where our count across all of the campaign’s reports differs from the campaign’s own figure, the line carries a note giving our count.
• One donor across reports (federal). For federal candidates, one donor is matched across reports and addresses by full name plus employer or occupation, and reattributions and redesignations are applied across the whole cycle.
• Dates. A card’s “as of” date is the end of the period its latest report covers. When the report lists a period ending on a printed date that had not yet happened when the report was filed, the card is dated by its filed date instead and carries a note right after its figures, for example: “The filer’s latest report lists a period ending Oct 24, 2026, a printed date that had not yet happened when the report was filed, so this card is dated by its filed date, Sep 30, 2026.”

Why the size bands use each donor’s total

The law sets the size at which a campaign must list a donor by name, and the line differs by authority (below). Texas also lists gifts made online by name at any size. So a named gift is not always a large one, and an unnamed gift is not always from a different person. The card therefore sorts people by each donor’s total to the candidate for the cycle, using the same $200 and $1,000 lines for every candidate. Money a report gives only as an unnamed total counts as small donors.

The lines at which the law requires a name:

• Federal candidates (FEC). A contribution from an individual must be itemized when it exceeds $200, or adds up to more than $200 with that person’s other gifts during the election cycle (FEC: individual contributions).
• Texas candidates (Texas Ethics Commission). For contributions made on or after January 1, 2026, a report must give the details of contributions from a person that total more than $110 in the reporting period (Texas Election Code §254.031(a)(1), as adjusted by the Commission’s rule §18.31; Texas Ethics Commission adopted rules, September 2025).

Where the figures come from, and how current they are

Each card says the date of the report its figures come from. Different candidates file on different schedules, so two cards in the same race can carry different dates.

When a campaign amends its report

Campaigns sometimes file amended reports. When that happens the figure on the card updates and the card says “filer amended” with the date. That is the campaign changing its own filing, not a CLR correction. Only CLR’s own errors go on the corrections log.

What donor information is never used for

Federal law prohibits selling or using information about donors from FEC reports, including their names and addresses, to ask for contributions or for commercial purposes (FEC: sale or use of contributor information, 52 U.S.C. §30111(a)(4)). The Council applies the same rule to state and county donor data. No donor name from these pages is ever added to a mailing list, used to target ads, or used to contact anyone.

Street addresses are never shown. A named giver appears with the city, state, employer and occupation they reported. Only the ten largest givers per candidate are listed; the full list is one click away at the filing.

PAC sponsor lookup

Texas reports do not say on their face whether a PAC belongs to a company, a union or neither. This table says which, PAC by PAC, with the record that settles it. It decides the Business, Labor and Issue PAC parts of the bar for Texas candidates. It is published in full as entries are reviewed. A Texas PAC that is not on the list yet is counted as Unclassified.

No entries have been reviewed yet.

Questions or a mistake? See the corrections log, or write to chairman@councilonlocalrelations.org with the page and the source you believe is right.