Campaign finance requirements govern the raising and spending of money for political campaigns. While not the only factor in an election’s outcome, successful fundraising can provide a candidate with advantages, such as the ability to boost name recognition and promote a message. In addition, fundraising can indicate enthusiasm for candidates and parties.

Every election cycle, the donations given to Texas candidates and PACs come under intense scrutiny by media outlets, politicians, and citizens alike. Everyone wants to know who the biggest donors are (it’s always one of our most-viewed pages each cycle) and to speculate whether they are buying influence in Austin.

Texas politicians and PACs are required to file reports with the Texas Ethics Commission listing all their campaign contributions and expenditures. The most recent reports — which include all transactions for the last half of 2018 — were just released. Two major things to pay attention to in these reports: 1) final numbers on both donations and spending for the 2018 Election Cycle, and 2) perhaps even more interesting, a list of all donations made to Texas politicians after the election.