FECA Contribution Limits to Candidates

The Federal Election Campaign Act imposes limits on the amount of money that can be contributed to the campaigns of candidates for federal office, as well as national party committees and political action committees.

Recipients
Contributors Candidate or Candidate Committee per election* State, Local or District Party Committees per calendar year National Party Committee (e.g. RNC, DNC or Hill Committees) per calendar year PACs per calendar year Total per election cycle
(2 year period)
Individuals $2,000a $10,000 combined*** $25,000b $5,000 $95,000c
Multicandidate committees**
(ie. PACs) 		$5,000 $5,000 combined*** $15,000 $5,000 no limit
Party committees*** $5,000 no limit $5,000 $35.000†
    Note that these contribution limits were set in 1974 and were not originally adjusted to the rate of inflation.
    The new individual limits set by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 now will be indexed for inflation.

* "Per election" means that the contribution limit applies separately to primary and general elections.

** A multicandidate committee is a political committee that has:

*** Contributions from state, local and district party committees are considered as coming from the same source,
          so their separate contributions are combined to count toward the same limit.

† This limit applies to the combined total that the national party committees (RNC/DNC and Senatorial
          Campaign Committees) are allowed to contribute to a single senatorial candidate per election
          cycle (i.e. six years). This limit was changed from $17,500 per calendar year by the Bipartisan
          Campaign Reform Act of 2002 and will be indexed for inflation.

a This limit was raised from $1,000 by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.

b This limit was raised from $20,000 by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.

c This limit was raised from $25,000 per calendar year by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. Of this total, however, no more than $37,500 may be contributed to candidates and no more than $37,500 may be contributed to committees that are not national party committees (e.g. PACs), and no more than $57,000 may be contributed to party committees and PACs combined.