OpenFEC — Federal Election Commission Campaign Finance
The Federal Election Commission's openFEC API. All federal campaign finance data: candidates (presidential, congressional), committees (campaign, PAC, super PAC, party), individual contributions, expenditures, independent expenditures, debt. Free, requires a free API key.
Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1683+ live data sources.
Why this matters for AI agents
For political research, lobbying-spend analysis, or "where does this PAC's money go?" questions, OpenFEC is the canonical source. Government-mandated reporting; what's publicly disclosed flows here. Pair with the Lobbying Activity recipe for full political-footprint mapping.
Common flows:
- Candidate / committee lookup. "Find committees associated with a candidate" → search by name.
- Contribution patterns. "Who contributed to this PAC?" → committee contribution detail.
- Where the money went. "What did this committee spend on?" → committee disbursement detail.
- Independent expenditures. "Who's spending against this candidate?" → IE search.
Auth
Free key from https://api.open.fec.gov/developers/. Pass via _apiKey. Rate-limited; the key gives generous limits.
Committee types
For corporate / executive political activity, you typically care about the corporate PAC (regular) and any associated super PACs.
Reporting cycles
Federal campaign finance is reported by cycle: Jan 1 of year T to Dec 31 of T+1 for two-year cycles (House: every 2yr, Senate: every 6yr). Filings are quarterly during election years, semi-annually in off-years.
Common pitfalls
- Itemization thresholds. Individual contributions <$200 don't have to be itemized — only the aggregate appears. So "who contributed to X?" misses small donors.
- Bundling. A single donor can contribute to many committees, often via "bundlers." OpenFEC has individual contributions; bundling relationships are inferred, not reported.
- Soft money / 527s / dark money. OpenFEC doesn't have 501(c)(4) social welfare orgs that engage in political activity. For those, IRS Form 990 (separate pack:
propublica-nonprofit) is the closest analog. - Super PAC coordination is restricted, not eliminated. Super PACs report all activity but can't legally coordinate with candidates. In practice, "single-candidate super PAC" is a common pattern that's technically arms-length.
- Candidate vs. committee. A candidate has a candidate ID (Cxxxxxxxx); their authorized committee has a separate committee ID. Same-name searches need disambiguation.
- Cycle alignment for lookups. Searching for activity in 2023 alone misses things — most reports cover the full 2023-2024 cycle. Filter by cycle, not by year.
Quick Start
Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):
{
"mcpServers": {
"open-fec": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/open-fec/mcp"
}
}
}
What this endpoint actually serves
tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/open-fec/mcp returns the tools in the table
above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx,
discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the
gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a
single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the
pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and
is the authoritative answer for a given day.
This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a
scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via
ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a
second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without
them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth,
connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.
Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pipeworx": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
}
}
}
Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1683+ data sources. The
only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx
reaches all of them from either one.
No MCP client? Call it over HTTP
curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_candidates \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"query":"Sanders"}'
No account needed for the first calls. Inspect any tool: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_candidates. Find one: POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_packs with {"query":"..."}.
Standalone (no gateway account)
This package also runs as a local stdio MCP server — no Pipeworx account, no gateway round-trip:
{
"mcpServers": {
"open-fec": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-open-fec"]
}
}
}
Or run it directly to confirm it starts:
npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-open-fec
It speaks MCP over stdin/stdout and answers initialize/tools/list/tools/call
for only this pack's tools — none of the shared meta-tools the gateway
connection above adds. Same source, same tools, no ask_pipeworx routing.
Using with ask_pipeworx
Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:
ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Open Fec data" })
The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.
More
License
MIT