Candidate receipts in Virginia for 2018

Virginia 2018 dollars versus the U.S. 2018 total

The 2018 × Virginia join is a database match, not a narrative about a race. $81.1 million entered the extract because candidate records carried cycle 2018 and office state VA at the same time. 70 is the matching candidate count. $2.7 billion is what remains when the office-state filter is lifted for the same cycle.

70 is a relatively large candidate file for this office state. Arithmetic mean receipts per Virginia candidate are about $1.16 million ($81,147,715.01 / 70). National mean receipts per candidate in 2018 are about $1.12 million ($2,698,163,707.14 / 2418). Those ratios are divisions of packet facts. They are not medians, not typical campaigns, and not proof that Virginia campaigns were expensive or cheap.

Office state is not donor state. Virginia (VA) is the FEC office-state code. Maryland, District of Columbia, and North Carolina office states are other keys. The 2018 cycle is a closed even-year window in this extract; $81,147,715.01 is the stored Virginia office-state total for that window. Independent expenditures and USAspending tables do not feed $81,147,715.01. Source: FEC.gov.

Virginia candidates, not Virginia donors

Candidate receipts for office state Virginia in 2018 are $81.1 million. That money is reported on candidate committee filings aggregated to the candidate, then grouped by office state and cycle. It is not an itemized individual-donor table. No donor names appear in this packet, and none are invented here.

70 candidates is a count of candidate records in the join, not a count of Virginia households and not a turnout figure. The 2018 cycle is a closed even-year window in this extract; $81,147,715.01 is the stored Virginia office-state total for that window. Neighboring office states are other cycle-state pages.

2418 U.S. candidates in 2018

$2.7 billion is larger than $81.1 million because the cycle includes every office state, not because Virginia is being compared with a second state on this URL. 2418 is larger than 70 for the same reason. 3.0% is the only share this page computes, and its denominator is $2,698,163,707.14, not population.

2018 as a midterm cycle dates the window. The 2018 cycle is a closed even-year window in this extract; $81,147,715.01 is the stored Virginia office-state total for that window. Live cycle hubs can move as amended candidate reports arrive. If a live hub disagrees with $2,698,163,707.14 or $81,147,715.01, the newer FEC extract controls.

$81.1 million versus $2.7 billion

Never write that Virginia raised $2.7 billion. $2.7 billion is the national 2018 candidate-receipt total. Never write that the United States raised only $81.1 million in 2018. $81.1 million is the Virginia office-state total. The two columns are labeled stateRaised and cycleRaised in the packet for that reason.

3.0% is the only legitimate bridge between the columns. It is a quotient, not a second source. Independent expenditures still sit outside both columns.

Office state versus donor state

Donor state and office state part ways constantly. A contributor in another state can fund a Virginia Senate or House committee. A Virginia resident can fund a candidate whose office state is not VA. This page tracks the second field only: office state. It does not track the first.

Because donor geography is absent, $81,147,715.01 is not 'money from Virginia.' It is 'money reported by candidates whose office state is Virginia' in 2018. That sentence is the accurate one. Source: FEC.gov.

FEC receipts are not federal awards in Virginia

USAspending publishes federal obligations by place and agency. FEC publishes campaign finance. $81,147,715.01 does not become an award total because Virginia appears in both systems. $2,698,163,707.14 does not become an award total because 2018 is a year in both systems. This page never claims receipts funded federal awards.

The 2018 cycle is a closed even-year window in this extract; $81,147,715.01 is the stored Virginia office-state total for that window. Internal links remain the four packet hrefs only. No other path is cited. Independent expenditures remain outside the dollar columns used here.

A compact worksheet for this pair starts with labels, not with a ranking. Label one: Virginia 2018 candidate receipts = $81,147,715.01. Label two: U.S. 2018 candidate receipts = $2,698,163,707.14. Label three: other office states in 2018 = $2,617,015,992.13. Label four: Virginia candidate count = 70. Label five: U.S. candidate count = 2418. Label six: dollar share = 3.0%. Nothing in that worksheet is a donor list. Nothing in it is a federal award. 70 is a relatively large candidate file for this office state. Mean receipts of about $1.16 million in Virginia use labels one and four only. Mean receipts of about $1.12 million nationwide use labels two and five only. Cross-wiring those labels invents a statistic. Virginia (VA) is the FEC office-state code. Maryland, District of Columbia, and North Carolina office states are other keys. Cycle 2018 is a midterm window, which dates the worksheet and does not interpret it. Source: FEC.gov candidate receipts grouped by election cycle and office state.

Questions

How much did Virginia candidates raise in the 2018 election cycle?

FEC candidate receipts for office state Virginia (VA) total $81,147,715.01 in the 2018 cycle, across 70 candidates. The national 2018 cycle totals $2,698,163,707.14 from 2418 candidates, so Virginia is 3.0% of that U.S. candidate-receipt stack. Figures are from FEC.gov cycle-by-office-state aggregates of candidate receipts only, not independent expenditures.

Is $2.7 billion the amount Virginia candidates raised in 2018?

No. $2,698,163,707.14 is the national 2018 candidate-receipt total. Virginia's office-state total in that cycle is $81,147,715.01. Other office states hold $2,617,015,992.13. Use the 2018 cycle hub for the U.S. figure and this tie page for the Virginia slice only. Independent expenditures are omitted from both totals as shown here.

Does office state VA mean the donors lived in Virginia?

No. Office state is the state of the federal seat on the candidate record. Donors can live anywhere. This join does not allocate the $81,147,715.01 by donor state, employer, or party. An VA office-state code is not a map of Virginia residents and is not a map of where the money was spent. No donor names are in this packet.

How many Virginia candidates are in the 2018 file?

70 candidate records sum to $81,147,715.01. That count is candidates, not unique donors and not Virginia households. The arithmetic mean is about $1.16 million per candidate. Independent expenditures are not included. Unique-donor counts are not in these facts and are not invented here.