Lobby and foreign-policy money

Campaign contributions are domestic. Foreign governments cannot donate to federal candidates. This page puts Israel-linked PACs and super PACs next to U.S. defense-prime PACs and next to LDA/FARA lobbying spend for other foreign principals, so the scale can be argued from filings instead of from a flag. Snapshot 2026-09-30 · OpenFEC recast 2026-09-01. Methods on Sources.

FamilyPAC inIE forIE againstLDAFARA / LDA-matched
Israel lobby

Pro-Israel PACs and independent-expenditure committees commonly grouped with AIPAC. Not a count of Jewish Americans. JStreet is excluded.

$11.8M$50.3M$64.1M$13.6M21 principals
JStreetPAC

Liberal pro-Israel / two-state PAC. Shown as a counterweight, not added to Israel-lobby totals.

$0$0$0$0$0
U.S. defense primes

Traditional PACs of large U.S. aerospace and defense contractors. Domestic industry, not a foreign principal.

$4.3M$0$0$0$0
Saudi Arabia

Foreign principals cannot donate to U.S. campaigns. Comparison is LDA/FARA lobbying spend.

$0$0$0$026 principals
United Arab Emirates

Foreign principals cannot donate to U.S. campaigns. Comparison is LDA/FARA lobbying spend.

$0$0$0$018 principals
Taiwan / TECRO

Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office and related registrants.

$0$0$0$017 principals
Ukraine

Government of Ukraine and related registrants. Diaspora PACs are listed separately if present.

$0$0$0$08 principals
Armenia

ANCA and related Armenian-American PACs plus any LDA/FARA for the government of Armenia.

$0$0$0$300.0k3 principals

OpenSecrets checksum

Checksum only. OpenSecrets API was discontinued 2025-04-15; figures are parsed from public PAC summary pages and are not shown as site dollars.

CommitteeCycleOursOpenSecretsDelta
AIPAC PAC2024$6.9M$3.0M$3.8M
UDP2022$14.9M$26.1M-$11.2M
UDP2026$51.9M$37.9M$14.0M
RJC Victory Fund2024$3.0M$13.3M-$10.3M
DMFI PAC2022$0$0$0
DMFI PAC2026$0$0$0
DMFI Super PAC2024$0——
NORPAC2022$0——
NORPAC2026$0——
JStreetPAC2024$0——
JACPAC2022$0——
JACPAC2026$0——
Washington PAC2024$0——
TPOH PAC2022$0——
TPOH PAC2026$0——
COPAC2024$0——
Desert Caucus2022$0——
Desert Caucus2026$0——
RJC PAC2024$0——
IAC PAC2022$0——
IAC PAC2026$0——
MACC PAC2024$0——
Lockheed PAC2022$0——
Lockheed PAC2026$0——
Boeing PAC2024$1.6M$1.6M$27.5k
RTX PAC2022$0——
RTX PAC2026$0——
Northrop PAC2024$0——
GD PAC2022$0——
GD PAC2026$0——
L3Harris PAC2024$0——
HII PAC2022$0$0$0
HII PAC2026$0$0$0

What PAC in vs IE means

PAC in is a contribution into a campaign committee. Independent expenditures (United Democracy Project, DMFI Super PAC) are ads spent for or against someone and never hit that member’s account. Lumping them as “received” hides the primary-challenge machine.

Why other countries look small on PAC

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Taiwan, and Ukraine do not have AIPAC-style PACs because foreign principals cannot fund federal campaigns. Their comparable channel is LDA and FARA. FARA cells are active-principal counts from DOJ bulk CSV (receipts stay in PDFs). LDA dollars appear when a foreign client’s LDA filing matches.

Download family comparison (CSV)FEC bulk recast plus LDA rollups. FARA cells are principal counts unless an LDA dollar match exists.