metadata
license: mit
task_categories:
- tabular-classification
- tabular-regression
tags:
- campaign-finance
- fec
- elections
- political-donations
- pac
- lobbying
- duckdb
- government-data
- politics
- united-states
pretty_name: FEC Campaign Finance Database
size_categories:
- 100M<n<1B
FEC Campaign Finance Database
A clean, queryable DuckDB database built from FEC bulk data covering federal campaign finance filings.
339,466,701 rows across 10 tables covering candidates, committees, individual contributions, PAC spending, and more.
Built with fec-database.
Quick Start
DuckDB CLI
INSTALL httpfs;
LOAD httpfs;
ATTACH 'https://huggingface.co/datasets/Nason/fec-database/resolve/main/fec.duckdb' AS fec (READ_ONLY);
-- Top presidential candidates by individual donations (2024 cycle)
SELECT c.CAND_NAME, c.CAND_PTY_AFFILIATION AS party,
SUM(i.TRANSACTION_AMT) AS total, COUNT(*) AS donations
FROM fec.individual_contributions i
JOIN fec.candidates c ON i.CMTE_ID = c.CAND_PCC AND i.cycle = c.cycle
WHERE i.cycle = 2024 AND c.CAND_OFFICE = 'P' AND i.TRANSACTION_AMT > 0
GROUP BY 1, 2 ORDER BY total DESC LIMIT 10;
Python
import duckdb
con = duckdb.connect()
con.sql("INSTALL httpfs; LOAD httpfs;")
con.sql(\"\"\"
ATTACH 'https://huggingface.co/datasets/Nason/fec-database/resolve/main/fec.duckdb'
AS fec (READ_ONLY)
\"\"\")
con.sql("SELECT * FROM fec._metadata").show()
DuckDB uses HTTP range requests, so only the pages needed for your query are downloaded.
Tables
| Table | Description | Rows | Cols | Cycles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
individual_contributions |
Every individual donation: name, employer, occupation, amount, date | 268,792,987 | 22 | 2004-2026 |
committee_to_committee |
Transfers between committees | 45,559,049 | 22 | 2004-2026 |
operating_expenditures |
Committee operating expenditures: payee, purpose, amount | 18,875,347 | 26 | 2004-2026 |
committee_contributions |
PAC/party contributions to candidates | 5,214,013 | 23 | 2004-2026 |
independent_expenditures |
Independent expenditures for/against candidates | 664,775 | 258 | 2010-2026 |
committees |
Committee master: name, type, party, treasurer, connected org | 183,599 | 16 | 2004-2026 |
candidates |
Candidate master: name, party, office, state, district, status | 76,283 | 16 | 2004-2026 |
candidate_committee_links |
Which committees are authorized by which candidates | 73,520 | 8 | 2004-2026 |
communication_costs |
Internal communications supporting/opposing candidates | 25,558 | 27 | 2010-2026 |
electioneering_communications |
Broadcast ads mentioning candidates near elections | 1,570 | 397 | 2010-2024 |
Pre-built Views
| View | Description |
|---|---|
v_candidate_totals |
Candidate fundraising totals from individual contributions |
v_top_donors |
Aggregated donor activity across all cycles |
v_pac_to_candidate |
PAC-to-candidate contributions with org names |
v_daily_donations |
Daily donation volume and amounts |
Data Source
Federal Election Commission. Bulk data files are public domain and updated weekly.
License
Database build code: MIT. Underlying data: public domain (U.S. government records).
GitHub
Full source code, build instructions, and example queries: github.com/ian-nason/fec-database