Campaign Fundraising Screensaver
The Campaign Fundraising screensaver shows the federal campaigns that raised the most money this cycle, as reported to the FEC. Receipts are money reported raised — not a measure of support and not a prediction of any result. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
Live preview
Press ESC to leave fullscreen. Settings are saved in your browser only.
How the Campaign Fundraising screensaver works
The background pipeline reads this from the Federal Election Commission and saves a snapshot the saver loads.
The federal campaigns that raised the most money this cycle, as reported to the FEC.
It refreshes on a schedule, so what you see stays current.
Colours can be changed in settings; nothing is stored beyond your own browser.
How federal campaign finance reporting works
The Federal Election Commission is an independent regulatory agency that administers and enforces federal campaign finance law for US House, Senate, presidential and vice-presidential campaigns. The law covers disclosure of funds raised and spent, restrictions on contributions and expenditures, and public financing of presidential campaigns. The FEC makes the resulting data public, including through its OpenFEC interface at api.open.fec.gov.
The board shows receipts, meaning the money a campaign reports as received, and disbursements, the money reported as spent. The FEC groups its data by two-year election cycle, so a Senate campaign, with a six-year term, is still summarised by cycle. Receipts can include individual contributions, transfers from other committees and loans, so not all of a total comes from outside donors.
Two cautions apply. Committees file on set schedules: PACs and party committees choose monthly or quarterly filing, and extra reports fall due around elections, so totals lag actual fundraising. And a large total says nothing about voter support or an expected result. Names, parties and offices shown are as reported to the FEC, and the display takes no position on any candidate.
A worked example
The federal campaigns that raised the most money this cycle, as reported to the FEC. Receipts are money reported raised — not a measure of support and not a prediction of any result.
Settings & tips
- Accent and Background recolour the display.
- Run
automation/run.py fecto refresh the feed. - Press ESC to leave fullscreen.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real data?
- Yes — it comes from the Federal Election Commission and is refreshed on a schedule.
- Does raising the most money mean winning?
- No. Receipts are money campaigns reported raising. It is not a measure of support and nothing here predicts any result.
- Is a key needed?
- The FEC issues free API keys; the saver falls back to the shared demo key, which is heavily throttled.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- What is the difference between receipts and disbursements?
- Receipts are money reported as coming in and disbursements are money reported as going out.
- Why can the totals lag?
- Campaigns file periodic reports, so the numbers cover activity only up to the last reporting date, not up to today.
- What is an election cycle?
- The FEC organises its data into two-year election cycles. Campaigns for longer terms, such as the six-year Senate term, are still summarised by cycle.