Fetch basic information about candidates, and use parameters to filter results to the candidates you're looking for. Each result reflects a unique FEC candidate ID. That ID is particular to the candidate for a particular office sought. If a candidate runs for the same office multiple times, the ID stays the same. If the same person runs for another office — for example, a House candidate runs for a Senate office — that candidate will get a unique ID for each office.
Usage
fec_get_candidates(
office = NULL,
candidate_status = NULL,
cycle = NULL,
district = NULL,
year = NULL,
state = NULL,
name = NULL,
is_active_candidate = NULL,
federal_funds_flag = NULL,
candidate_id = NULL,
min_first_file_date = NULL,
has_raised_funds = NULL,
election_year = NULL,
incumbent_challenge = NULL,
max_first_file_date = NULL,
party = NULL,
sort = NULL,
sort_hide_null = NULL,
sort_null_only = NULL,
sort_nulls_last = NULL,
max_results = 100,
api_key = Sys.getenv("FEC_API_KEY", unset = "DEMO_KEY")
)Arguments
- office
Federal office candidate runs for: H, S or P
- candidate_status
One-letter code explaining if the candidate is: - C present candidate - F future candidate - N not yet a candidate - P prior candidate
- cycle
Two-year election cycle in which a candidate runs for office. Calculated from Form 2. The cycle begins with an odd year and is named for its ending, even year. This cycle follows the traditional house election cycle and subdivides the presidential and Senate elections into comparable two-year blocks. To retrieve data for the entire four years of a presidential term or six years of a senatorial term, you will need the
election_fullflag.- district
Two-digit US House distirict of the office the candidate is running for. Presidential, Senate and House at-large candidates will have District 00.
- year
Retrieve records pertaining to a particular election year. The list of election years is based on a candidate filing a statement of candidacy (F2) for that year.
- state
US state or territory where a candidate runs for office
- name
Name of candidate running for office
- is_active_candidate
Candidates who are actively seeking office. If no value is specified, all candidates are returned. When True is specified, only active candidates are returned. When False is specified, only inactive candidates are returned.
- federal_funds_flag
A boolean the describes if a presidential candidate has accepted federal funds. The flag will be false for House and Senate candidates.
- candidate_id
A unique identifier assigned to each candidate registered with the FEC. If a person runs for several offices, that person will have separate candidate IDs for each office.
- min_first_file_date
Selects all candidates whose first filing was received by the FEC after this date.
- has_raised_funds
A boolean that describes if a candidate's committee has ever received any receipts for their campaign for this particular office. (Candidates have separate candidate IDs for each office.)
- election_year
Year of election
- incumbent_challenge
One-letter code ('I', 'C', 'O') explaining if the candidate is an incumbent, a challenger, or if the seat is open.
- max_first_file_date
Selects all candidates whose first filing was received by the FEC before this date.
- party
Three-letter code for the party affiliated with a candidate or committee. For example, DEM for Democratic Party and REP for Republican Party.
- sort
Provide a field to sort by. Use
-for descending order.- sort_hide_null
Hide null values on sorted column(s).
- sort_null_only
Toggle that filters out all rows having sort column that is non-null
- sort_nulls_last
Toggle that sorts null values last
- max_results
The maximum number of results to return. Note that slightly more results may be returned if
max_resultsis not evenly divisible by 100.- api_key
An API key provided by the API provider. This key is not clearly documented in the API description. Check the API documentation for details.