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 (67%), while PAC money runs Republican (73%). ■ to Republicans  ■ to Democrats.

The party bar is small for a reason. The two state parties give candidates almost nothing in cash — they give $14,050,868 in donated goods and services instead ($9,255,460 to Republicans, $4,795,408 to Democrats), which is not a cash contribution and so sits outside these bars. PACs add $82,898 more in kind, and $1,369,009 more comes from individuals, businesses and committees that file no Iowa report. Counting all of it, in-kind support to these candidates totals $15,502,776, 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 $10.1M reached these same candidates from 335 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: RAGA Action Fund (Washington, DC) $3.5M ; Feenstra For Congress (Hull, IA) $1.4M ; The PAC for America's Future - FEC (Washington, DC) $425k ; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers PAC IBEW (Washington, DC) $330k ; Delivers PAC (Hudson, WI) $191k .

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, $109,503,072 has gone back out, reported by 769 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 $125,494,457 across 109,550 payments to 14,356 different recipients. Just under half never buys anything: $56,121,586 moves from one committee to another — party committees funding candidates, PACs funding both. The rest, $69,372,871, buys something from 13,397 vendors and individuals.

bought goods or services — $69,372,871   went to another committee — $56,121,586

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, $89,508,587 of the $109,503,072 they reported spending is broken out payee-by-payee here. The other $19,994,484 is not, and we do not claim to know why: the state's itemized file carries payments through July 16, 2026, while these committees have filed reports as recently as September 3, 2026 — so the newest filings are not in it yet, and how much of the remainder is lag rather than something never itemized is not something the record tells us. 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 July 16, 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 2026-07-20; the oldest in this list is 2026-01-20); federal figures are through 2025-12-31 to 2026-06-30 (it varies by campaign).