WACO, TX: $25.5M on 65,898 FEC receipts

Reading $25,504,084 as a city-string roll-up

The headline pair is $25,504,084 and 65,898 lines. The implied average is about $387. Cite both numbers. Quoting only the dollars drops the line-count shape of the Waco book.

McLennan County’s Waco string is separate from Dallas, Austin, and Temple on the FEC city key. Filers typed WACO in the city field. LobbyVault summed rows with that string and state TX. The city total can include a PAC or joint-fundraising committee address when that is the city filers typed. LobbyVault does not recode those rows out of the city string.

If a newsroom map paints Waco together with Temple or Hewitt, the FEC file still splits them. This extract’s only city total is $25,504,084 on 65,898 WACO, TX rows, mean near $387. Waco is not a Dallas suburb on this tape.

Why WACO on the receipt is not a census of Waco

Searchers often want “how much did people in Waco give.” The honest citation is narrower: itemized federal receipts with contributor city WACO, TX total $25,504,084 across 65,898 contributions. Dropping “itemized” and “contributor city” inflates the claim.

Party is not in this packet. Do not attach a partisan reading to $25,504,084. Occupation and employer may appear on named receipts on the city hub; they are not rolled up here.

Outside the Waco itemized book

$25,504,084 is not spending by Waco candidates. A candidate who lives in Waco can raise money from other cities. A donor row tagged WACO, TX can go to a committee anywhere.

A mean near $387 does not describe a median resident of Waco. Means move with a few large lines.

Postal confusion with Hewitt, Woodway, or Temple is why the city field is a poor residency proxy. $25,504,084 counts rows that stored WACO, TX. 65,898 lines. About $387 each. Neighbor names need their own hubs.

Waco’s mid-mean Central Texas book

Waco is a mid-mean book on this extract: 65,898 lines produce $25,504,084, a mean near $387. Mid-mean is not the same as unique people.

Comparing Waco’s mean to another city is only valid on the same series: contributor city, itemized federal receipts. Mixing in Texas state data breaks the comparison.

A Waco total of $25,504,084 does not absorb Temple, Hewitt, or Dallas. Those names are other city strings when filers typed them. State TX stays on the citation so WACO, TX is not merged with a same-named place elsewhere.

City total versus postal codes in TX

65,898 city-field lines can spread across many ZIPs or cluster in a few. This packet does not list those ZIPs. Open the ZIP directory and the live Waco hub rather than guessing the split.

After an amendment wave, recheck both the city hub and any ZIP you compared. Snapshots drift independently.

Because this packet carries only city, state, dollar total, and contribution count, every other story about Waco politics sits outside the extract. That includes candidate quality, issue fights, and local election results. This guide stays on the two numbers FEC.gov supplied for the city field.

Source tables for $25,504,084

A mean of about $387 is division of $25,504,084 by 65,898. It is fair to report as arithmetic. It is not fair to report as a typical resident of Waco.

Internal links on this page go only to the Waco city hub, the all-cities directory, and the ZIP directory. Those are the three paths that match this packet.

Waco’s $25,504,084 across 65,898 contributions is a McLennan County city field, mean near $387. Temple and Hewitt are neighboring strings, not subsets. McLennan County is not summed here. Repeat gifts add rows. Texas state-office receipts are omitted. Cite $25,504,084 with 65,898 from FEC.gov aggregates indexed on LobbyVault.

Researchers citing Waco should keep McLennan County off the sentence unless they add Temple and Hewitt on purpose. The live Waco table can show named committees that this snapshot does not list. A later FEC extract can move $25,504,084 or 65,898 without this guide rewriting itself. Treat the mean near $387 as division only. Texas state-office receipts sit outside both packet facts. If a ZIP page for a Waco code disagrees with the city hub, quote both keys rather than forcing a match. Dallas and Austin remain other strings. The 65,898-line count still is not a headcount of Waco people.

Questions

How much is itemized from contributor city Waco, TX?

FEC.gov itemized receipts listing contributor city WACO, TX total $25,504,084 across 65,898 contributions in the LobbyVault aggregate. That figure is a city-string roll-up of federal Schedule A rows, not a unique-donor count and not a census of people who live in Waco. Unitemized gifts sit outside it.

What does the Waco contribution count mean?

LobbyVault counts 65,898 itemized contributions for WACO, TX. That is a line count, not a headcount of unique people. Repeat gifts, redesignations, and memo entries can add rows without adding new donors. This packet does not publish a unique-donor figure, so 65,898 should not be quoted as a population. The matching dollar total on the same extract is $25,504,084.

Does the Waco total include only residents?

No. The city is the contributor-city value on the FEC itemization. Filers typed WACO with state TX. Office addresses and mail that list Waco can be part of $25,504,084 when that is the city string on the receipt. LobbyVault does not recode the field into a residential-only book. The 65,898-line count follows the same rule.

Are Waco numbers from FEC.gov?

The numbers come from FEC.gov itemized contribution aggregates indexed on LobbyVault: $25,504,084 and 65,898 lines for WACO, TX. Original reports remain on FEC.gov. Unitemized federal gifts and non-federal filings from TX are outside both figures. If a later extract disagrees with this snapshot, the Commission’s filing controls. The mean of about $387 is arithmetic from those two packet facts.