Business political contributions from Virginia

The Business–Virginia join

Occupation BUSINESS and donor state VA produce $2,594,208, 2,161 contributions, and 67 donors. The occupation hub is $18,619,893, 38,349 contributions, and 2,172 donors. Virginia’s dollar share is about 14%; contribution share about 6% (2,161 of 38,349); donor share about 3% (67 of 2,172).

Sixty-seven people carrying about 14% of the labeled dollars is a concentrated state slice. Two thousand one hundred sixty-one contributions from those 67 donors also means repeat itemization. None of that identifies firms or committees. It is the overlap of two FEC columns.

Sixty-seven Virginia donors produced 2,161 contributions, about 32 itemized rows per donor in this join, versus about 18 rows per donor nationally (38,349 contributions from 2,172 donors). Virginia’s about 14% share of the $18,619,893 from about 3% of donors is concentration plus repeats. Sixty-seven people is a thin list to treat as “Virginia business.”

Business versus Businessman and other titles

BUSINESS is shorter and less gendered than BUSINESSMAN, which is a separate occupation hub with its own national total and its own state ties. OWNER, ENTREPRENEUR, and SELF EMPLOYED, if used, sit elsewhere. The $18,619,893 national Business total is this word only.

Two thousand one hundred seventy-two donors nationwide produced 38,349 Business-coded contributions. This page locates the Virginia overlap; it does not merge nearby labels.

Virginia as donor state

Sixty-seven Virginia donors produced 2,161 contributions totaling $2,594,208. Virginia has several other occupation ties in this slice—Government Affairs, Analyst, Developer, Auto Dealer, Government Relations, Economist, Realtor. Those use other strings. Their state totals are not this $2,594,208.

Donor state VA is the address on the record, not proof of a Virginia-registered company, and not a limit to Virginia candidates. Recipients can be any FEC-filing committee.

Virginia’s state hub includes Government Affairs, Analyst, Developer, Auto Dealer, Government Relations, Economist, and Realtor ties. BUSINESS is only this filter. The Business occupation hub without Virginia still holds about 86% of the $18,619,893. BUSINESSMAN is a different national label.

What the relationship excludes

This page does not measure Virginia’s private sector, does not rank small business, and does not claim that Business-coded money caused any electoral result. Occupation plus state is a bookkeeping join. Correlation is not causation. The string is too generic to treat as a single industry.

Unitemized gifts and independent expenditures are omitted. FEC.gov is the source. Occupation labels are filer-entered.

BUSINESS is too generic for an industry ranking. Itemized individual contributions only. Unitemized gifts and independent expenditures are omitted. Firm revenue, employee counts, and NAICS codes are not in the occupation box. Donor state VA is not recipient geography. Correlation is not causation.

Using the Business and Virginia hubs without mixing them

Subtract the Virginia dollars on this page from the national Business occupation total and the difference is the amount still coded Business in every other state combined. That remainder has no row-by-row breakdown here because those states are other ties. The occupation internal link holds the unlabeled-by-state total; the state internal link holds every occupation with this state code; the occupations index and the ties index place this pair among other joins built the same way.

A unique-donor count is not a person-level audit. The FEC aggregate can merge similar names or split one person who filed under variants. A contribution count can be many small itemized rows. A dollar total can hide that skew. Keeping all three figures on the same page is the point of the join: quoting only the Virginia dollars, or only the Business national total, drops a key.

This relationship is not a forecast and not a ranking of influence. Occupation does not cause contributions, and donor state does not cause recipient geography. Public records, two fields, one intersection. FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates; occupation labels are filer-entered.

Related FEC pages

Business donations holds the $18,619,893 national occupation total. Virginia campaign finance holds all itemized individual activity coded to VA. All occupations and all FEC ties place this pair among other occupation-state intersections.

Questions

How much have Business donors in Virginia given?

FEC itemized individual contributions from donors listing occupation Business and state Virginia total $2,594,208, from 2,161 contributions and 67 donors. Nationwide, Business-coded receipts are $18,619,893 from 38,349 contributions and 2,172 donors. Virginia is about 14% of those dollars.

Is Business the same as Businessman in FEC data?

No. BUSINESS and BUSINESSMAN are different occupation strings. This join uses BUSINESS only: $18,619,893 nationally and $2,594,208 in Virginia. Businessman has its own national total and its own state ties. Filers choose the words.

Why only 67 Virginia donors for $2.6 million?

The state side is 67 donors, 2,161 contributions, and $2,594,208—about 3% of the occupation’s 2,172 donors and about 14% of its dollars. Concentration in a small donor list explains the arithmetic. This page does not name those 67 people.

Does this money go to Virginia candidates?

Not necessarily. Donor state is Virginia. Recipients can be any FEC-filing committee. This page does not allocate the $2,594,208 by office or by in-state versus out-of-state campaigns.