libfec

Basic libfec Usage ​

Once you have installed the libfec CLI, you can begin to export FEC filings into various file formats like CSVs, JSON, SQLite, or Excel.

Basic exports ​

Let's export all data from Nikki Haley's 2023 Q1 presidential campaign's filing, FEC-1721616:

bash
libfec export \
  FEC-1721616 \
  -o haley-2023-Q1.db
output
Exporting filings to SQLite database at "haley-2023-Q1.db"
Finished exporting 1 filings into haley-2023-Q1.db, in 0 seconds

Let's break down this command:

  • libfec export: We're using the libfec program to call the export command, which exports FEC filings into different file formats.
  • FEC-1721616: This is the positional argument for the export subcommand, the ID of the FEC filing we care about (Nikki Haley's 2023 Q1 financial report).
  • -o haley-2023-Q1.db: The "output" flag, meaning we want to output data into the haley-2023-Q1.db file. The .db file extension designates this as a SQLite export.

So the result is a single haley-2023-Q1.db SQLite database file, with various generated tables for each itemization:

bash
› sqlite3 haley-2023-Q1.db
sqlite> .tables
libfec_F3P         libfec_filings     libfec_schedule_a  libfec_schedule_b

You can then use SQL to query the exact into you're looking for, using your programming language's SQLite client library. See SQL Reference for more info about these tables.

Exporting to CSV ​

There are two types of CSV exports that libfec supports: CSV directory exports and target specific" CSV exports.

CSV directory exports are made with the --output-directory and --format csv flags:

bash
$ libfec export \
  FEC-1721616 \
  --format csv \
  --output-directory haley-2023-Q1
$ tree --du -h haley-2023-Q1/
output
[5.4M]  haley-2023-Q1/
├── [5.3K]  cover_F3P.csv
├── [5.4M]  schedule_a.csv
└── [ 43K]  schedule_b.csv

Itemizations from the FEC-1721616 filing will be exported by itemization type into various CSVs inside of haley-2023-Q1. In this example, cover_F3P.csv will have the F3P summary page information from the filing. The schedule_a.csv file contains receipt information including individual contributors and PAC contributions. The schedule_b.csv file contains disbursement information, like operating expenses, transfers to other PACs, refunds, and more.

If instead you only care about receipts, you can instead perform a target-sepcfic CSV export like so:

bash
$ libfec export \
  FEC-1721616 \
  --target receipts \
  -o haley-2023-Q1-receipts.csv

The --target receipts flag will export only the Schedule A itemizations records from FEC-1721616 into a single CSV file at haley-2023-Q1-receipts.csv.

Alternatively use --target disbursements for Schedule B itemizations:

bash
$ libfec export \
  FEC-1721616 \
  --target disbursements \
  -o haley-2023-Q1-disbursements.csv

Exporting a candidate or committee ​

Copy+pasting FEC filing IDs can get old after a while! Instead of exporting a single FEC filing, you can also provide a candidate ID or committee ID, and libfec will find all relevent filings.

For example, let's export all filings from the 2024 cycle of Congresswoman Young Kim's principal campaign committee, Young Kim for Congress (C00665638):

bash
libfec export \
  --cycle 2024 \
  C00665638 \
  -o kim.db

Now kim.db contains data from 12 filings submitted by Kim's committee, relevant to the 2024 election cycle. libfec will automatically use the OpenFEC API to find relevant filings.

Exporting all candidates in an election ​

libfec can also resolve filings from a specific presidential, senate, or house race. Say we wanted to get all filings from all canddiate committees who ran in the California 40th district 2024 race, which is the current district Kim represents. We can get that like so:

bash
libfec export \
  --election 2024 \
  CA40 \
  -o ca40-2024.db

The --election flag will find all candidates who ran in the 2024 CA40 election, and export all of their filings into ca40-2024.db.

You can do the same for senate elections:

bash
# Iowa senate candidates for 2026
libfec export \
  --election 2026 \
  senate-IA \
  -o ia-2026.db

Or presidents:

bash
libfec export \
  --election 2024 \
  president \
  -o prez-2024.db

Form Type Filtering ​

Candidates and committees file several different types of forms and reports to the FEC. You can filter for exact forms that you care about with the --form-type flag.

For example, candidates file F2 forms to declare their candidacy. To export all F2 forms filed by people who ran for the California senate seat in 2024, you can run:

bash
libfec export \
  --cycle 2024 \
  --form-type F2 \
  --state CA \
  --office S \
  -o ca-senate-2024.db