Iowa's political money

Who funds which party

Money given to Iowa candidates since January 2023, by who gave it, and which party's candidates got it. The lines cross: individual donors lean Democratic (66%), while PAC money runs Republican (69%). ■ to Republicans  ■ to Democrats.

The party bar is small for a reason. The two state parties give candidates almost nothing in cash — they give $22,340,184 in donated goods and services instead ($15,441,343 to Republicans, $6,898,842 to Democrats), which is not a cash contribution and so sits outside these bars. PACs add $109,039 more in kind, and $2,067,902 more comes from individuals, businesses and committees that file no Iowa report. Counting all of it, in-kind support to these candidates totals $24,517,125, plus $2,886,287 in loans.

PAC money by kind

That PAC money, split by the interest behind it — this site's own classification of the largest PACs (80% of PAC dollars categorized; the rest left unclassified). Business and industry money runs Republican; labor and cause money runs Democratic.

The biggest Iowa-registered PAC givers since 2023, with each one's lean. A further $41.5M reached these same candidates from 391 committees that file no Iowa report at all — national PACs, out-of-state committees, and federal candidate committees. No record we hold states their type, so they are named here rather than counted as PACs: RGA Right Direction PAC (Washington, DC) $16.8M ; RAGA Action Fund (Washington, DC) $8.6M ; DAGA Individual PAC (Washington, DC) $3.0M ; Democratic Governors Association (Washington, DC) $2.5M ; Feenstra For Congress (Hull, IA) $1.4M .

What the three bars leave out

Every war chest in Iowa politics

One dot per campaign or committee, placed by how much money it had in the bank on its most recent filing. The scale steps by multiples of ten, so a $1,000 county committee and a $17 million campaign both fit on one line — each step to the right is ten times more money. ■ Republican  ■ Democratic  ■ other / no party declared. Hover for detail; click any dot to open its record.

Where it goes

Everything above is money coming in. Since 2023, $201,976,148 has gone back out, reported by 802 committees of every type (candidate, PAC and party) with any outlay at all. Every figure is the committee's own Schedule B total on its filed disclosure reports.

How much, and then to whom. These are the period totals each committee reported spending. Who actually received the money — the consultants, ad buyers, printers and staff behind these totals — is in Who gets paid, below.

The twelve biggest spenders

Bar length is dollars spent. The second figure is what the same committee raised in cash over the same period, so a committee spending faster than it raises is visible at a glance.

Who gets paid

Iowa publishes campaign spending payment by payment. Since 2023 that is $209,038,470 across 125,667 payments to 15,577 different recipients. Just under half never buys anything: $73,573,937 moves from one committee to another — party committees funding candidates, PACs funding both. The rest, $135,464,533, buys something from 14,574 vendors and individuals.

bought goods or services — $135,464,533   went to another committee — $73,573,937

The biggest vendors — who campaigns buy from

Iowa's filings have no payee ID — the payee is typed by each committee's treasurer, so one vendor arrives under many spellings ("Victory Enterprises" appears 12 ways). Spellings that differ only in case, punctuation or a corporate suffix are counted together; nothing fuzzier than that, so a vendor may still be split.

What this does not cover. For the committees this site tracks, $173,052,600 of the $201,976,148 they reported spending is broken out payee-by-payee here. The other $28,923,549 is not, and we do not claim to know why. The itemized rows we hold (Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board: Iowa Data Hub dataset 918, plus the Board's public search read 2026-10-19) carry payments through October 20, 2026, and these committees have filed reports as recently as October 21, 2026. A further $35,985,870 was spent by county, city and out-of-state committees this site does not keep pages for, and $1,104,349 repaid loans rather than buying anything. Payments through October 20, 2026.

The fifteen biggest war chests — state and federal

■ Republican  ■ Democratic  ■ other / no party declared.

State figures are as of each committee's latest filing (newest 2026-10-19; the oldest in this list is 2026-01-20); federal figures are through 2025-12-31 to 2026-10-14 (it varies by campaign).

Where the money flows

The 16 biggest PAC donors since 2023 — political action committees, groups that pool money to give candidates — and who got their money. (178 registered PACs gave in all, alongside 399 other committees that this chart also draws from: 29 are candidates' own committees giving to other candidates, and 370 gave without an Iowa registration record of their own.) Each giver's six largest recipients are drawn: $35,600,250.00 of the $40,013,049.87 these 16 gave inside this recipient set, so a node's height is its drawn ribbons, not its full giving; the PAC givers higher on this page are ranked by their totals. Wider ribbon = more dollars; color = the receiving candidate's party: ■ Republican  ■ Democratic  ■ other / no party declared. Hover any ribbon; click any name.