Pivoting back to midterms, I thought I would get into the nitty-gritty: money. It costs a lot (like seriously big bucks) to run a campaign, and the question is as old as time: How do you get this money?
Legality
To roughly explain, much like voting laws vary by state, so do campaign laws. However, there are federal laws that limit and explain how donations can be used when it comes to running campaigns.
All federal elections are overseen by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which is an independent federal agency that tracks campaign finances and enforces laws having to do with such.
The framework for all campaigns is the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA). The law was passed by President Nixon and enacted to increase transparency in campaign finances (which is ironic, trust me, I know). It essentially sets limits on how much money can be donated to political campaigns. (Click here for the 2025-26 election cycle donation limits)
Public Donations
This is what I assume most people are familiar with. Where the individual donates a sum of money to a politician’s “cause.” They are separated into 2 different categories: Small and Large.
Small donations are $200 or less, and large donations are over $200. The current limit on how much individuals can donate directly to the candidate is $3,500 per election.
Money from PACS/Super-PACS
This is the type of fundraising people are most unaware of. A PAC stands for: Political Action Committee. A Super PAC is like saying a very powerful PAC.
These are organizations formed to raise money to support or oppose political agendas. Examples that probably most have heard of are the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the NRA Victory Fund.
How do they get their money?
Like most organizations, PACS and Super PACS get money through public donations. This is really where the similarities end.
PACS have a limit on how much money they can receive in individual donations, and can directly donate to candidates (again with a limit)
Super-PACS are NOT allowed to donate money directly to candidates, nor can they communicate with politicians directly. However, they are not subjected to any individual donation limits, nor limits in terms of spending. Super-PACS influence elections differently; while they cannot donate to individual campaigns, they most commonly run ads in support of or bashing a candidate.
Both PACS and Super-PACS are required to report their donations to the FEC and get published every election cycle.
What if it gets dark?
Now, let’s talk Dark Money. Unlike PACS and Super-PACS, “politically active nonprofits such as 501(c)(4)s are generally under no legal obligation to disclose their donors even if they spend to influence elections.”
It sounds scarier than it is, but essentially, dark money is untraceable past a certain point. PACS and Super-PACS must disclose their donors when reporting to the FEC; politically active nonprofits do not. For example, if you donated money to the NAACP, your donation is not disclosed to the FEC. (shout out to my high school American Government teacher for the example)
PAC-ing it up: Why is this important?
I know it’s already a pretty notorious cliche that Politicians are corrupt, but I don’t think people really understand how they are corrupt. It’s usually not in everyone’s faces, but most politicians are bought and sold. When organizations such as PACS and Super-PACS donate large sums of money to political campaigns, it starts to feel disingenuous. I don’t think that it’s a bad thing to accept PAC money from issues that you care about, but when I see a Politician that has their hands in a lot of different corporate PACS I’m immediately wary about where their best interest lies. Are they going to vote based on what is best for their constituents, or are they going to be bought off and sacrifice our skin in the game to earn more?
One of my favorite websites to use when I’m looking into candidates is www.opensecrets.org, which is a bipartisan and independent nonprofit that does all the hard work for you. They collect data from each election cycle and plug it all into their website. All you have to do is search for the Politician you are trying to look for, and it will come up with all of the FEC and other trackable data in an easy, condensed format.