Retired/Retired on FEC schedules: $20.8 million

A concatenated status phrase

When both FEC boxes say retired, many systems store Retired/Retired as one string. LobbyVault ranks that concatenation on its own. The $20,789,800 total is only this slash form. RETIRED in all caps, without the slash, is a different key whose dollar pile is much larger. Mixing them without documenting the join would treat two stored strings as one industry.

N/A/RETIRED and other placeholder hybrids are also different keys. A committee that wrote N/A in employer and RETIRED in occupation is not in these 3,944 donors. This page does not recode missing-data prefixes into Retired/Retired.

3,944 donors, 62,516 lines, $20.8 million

3,944 unique donors produced 62,516 Retired/Retired contribution lines totaling $20,789,800. That receipt count is high relative to the donor count — on the order of 16 itemized lines per person — a shape consistent with recurring itemized gifts. The packet does not publish a mean ticket as its own FEC field.

Compared with UNEMPLOYED’s 2,545 donors and 62,616 lines, this slash-retired cluster has more unique people on a similar line count. That is a filing-pattern contrast between two status strings, not a statement about which group is larger in the Census.

Donor table without pension inference

The Retired/Retired donor table lists disclosed names and recipient committees. Repeat names are expected given 62,516 lines from 3,944 people. A large gift is a public individual contribution. It is not a pension disbursement, not Social Security, and not evidence of motive.

A later receipt that says RETIRED without the slash leaves this row for that later receipt. LobbyVault does not merge mixed-case Retired/Retired into all-caps RETIRED. Occupation pages show whatever second field was stored beside the slash string.

Status siblings

RETIRED, NOT EMPLOYED, UNEMPLOYED, HOMEMAKER, and VOLUNTEER are related self-descriptions with separate totals. Retired/Retired is the slash duplicate only. Placeholders (REQUESTED and siblings) are missing employer data, not this status.

Researchers building a combined retiree picture must list every key they include and accept that the same person can appear under more than one string across receipts. This page stays at $20,789,800 for Retired/Retired.

A combined retiree picture that silently adds Retired/Retired’s 3,944 donors and $20,789,800 to standalone RETIRED would mix a slash duplicate into the dominant status word. The 62,516 lines here are the concatenated pair only. Unitemized money, state races, and PAC filings without this string stay out. Occupation pages may show retired in both boxes or a different second field. NOT EMPLOYED, UNEMPLOYED, HOMEMAKER, and VOLUNTEER still have their own pages. The donor table is the name-level view of the 3,944 people. Source remains FEC.gov via LobbyVault, employer/occupation self-reports, not NAICS and not a beneficiary census.

Source and coverage

FEC.gov via LobbyVault: $20,789,800, 62,516 contributions, 3,944 donors, top employer Retired/Retired. Unitemized gifts, state races, and committee PAC filings that lack this individual string are omitted.

The ranking is FEC employer/occupation self-reports, not NAICS. Follow committees on the donor table for party and office. This page does not assign partisan percentages to the slash label.

Itemized coverage versus the standalone RETIRED row

Retired/Retired’s $20,789,800 sits on 62,516 itemized lines from 3,944 donors. That line count is similar to UNEMPLOYED’s 62,616, but the unique-person count is higher (3,944 versus 2,545). The contrast is a filing-pattern fact about two status strings, not a Census finding about which group is larger. Unitemized gifts, state races, and committee PAC filings that lack this slash pair are omitted from the $20,789,800.

Standalone RETIRED without the slash is a different key with a far larger dollar pile. N/A/RETIRED and other placeholder hybrids are also different keys. LobbyVault does not merge mixed-case Retired/Retired into all-caps RETIRED, and it does not fold missing-data prefixes into this row. A later receipt that drops the slash leaves this page for that later receipt.

The donor table lists disclosed names and committees. Repeat names are expected at roughly 16 lines per unique donor. Occupation pages show the companion field. NOT EMPLOYED, UNEMPLOYED, HOMEMAKER, and VOLUNTEER remain sibling status pages. Source: FEC.gov via LobbyVault, $20,789,800, 62,516 contributions, 3,944 donors, top employer Retired/Retired. The ranking is FEC employer/occupation self-reports, not NAICS and not a Social Security beneficiary count.

Questions

How much have Retired/Retired donors given federally?

LobbyVault attributes $20,789,800 to the Retired/Retired string, from 62,516 contributions and 3,944 donors. These are itemized individual receipts with that slash-joined text, not the standalone RETIRED row and not a NAICS retiree sector. Unitemized gifts are omitted. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

Is Retired/Retired the same as RETIRED?

No. RETIRED without the slash is a separate, much larger grouped string. Retired/Retired is the concatenated employer/occupation pair. The $20,789,800 figure is the slash form only. LobbyVault does not merge mixed-case slash duplicates into all-caps RETIRED. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.

Why are there 62,516 contributions from 3,944 donors?

Each itemized gift is a line. Repeat donations from the same people raise the 62,516 receipt count without adding new unique donors beyond 3,944. Recurring online itemized programs often produce that ratio. The FEC field is transactional, not a once-per-person census.

Does this include N/A/RETIRED filings?

No. N/A/RETIRED and other placeholder hybrids are different strings. A receipt counted in the $20,789,800 Retired/Retired total carries that exact slash pair, not a missing-data prefix. Figures on this answer are limited to that FEC employer string as indexed on LobbyVault; unitemized gifts and non-federal filings are omitted.