VAO

Disclaimer

Not a Government Website

VoteAmericaOnly is an independent, nonpartisan informational project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any government agency, political party, campaign, or candidate.

Data Sources

VoteAmericaOnly aggregates data from the following publicly available sources:

Probability & Finance Scores

Candidate cards display up to eight calculated scores. All scores are derived from publicly available FEC filings and Congress.gov roll call data. They reflect funding patterns and voting correlations only — they do not represent endorsements, political positions, or personal beliefs.

  • Pro Israel Probability — If an AIPAC or Israel tracker rating exists, the rating score is used directly. Otherwise: (pro-Israel PAC contributions / total contributions) × 70, plus Israel-related travel trips × 15 (capped at 30). Pro-Israel PAC keywords include AIPAC, NORPAC, J Street, DMFI, and related committees.
  • Globalist Probability — (Pharma + Oil & Gas + Tech + Defense + Finance industry PAC contributions) / total contributions × 100. Measures the share of funding from major corporate industry sectors.
  • Grassroots Probability — Individual contributions / (Individual + PAC contributions) × 100, using FEC summary totals only to avoid double-counting with itemized PAC records. A high score means the candidate relies more on individual donors than PAC money.
  • Self-Funding Score — (Candidate personal loans + candidate personal contributions) / total receipts × 100. Measures how much of a candidate's campaign is funded from their own wealth. Source: FEC bulk data (weball files, CAND_CONTRIB + CAND_LOANS fields).
  • Outside Spending Exposure — (Total independent expenditures for + against the candidate) / max(total receipts, total IE) × 100. Independent expenditures are spending by Super PACs and other outside groups that support or oppose a candidate without coordinating with their campaign. Source: FEC Schedule E (24E=support, 24A=oppose).
  • Small Dollar Score — (Contributions under $200) / total individual contributions × 100. A true grassroots indicator — measures the share of small, unitemized donations. Source: FEC bulk data (weball files).
  • Corporate PAC Dependency — Total PAC contributions / total receipts × 100. Measures how dependent a candidate is on PAC money overall relative to their total fundraising.

All scores are capped at 100. A score of 0 means either no data is available or the calculated value rounds to zero. Scores are computed at query time from the database — they are not stored or manually assigned.

Outside Influence Probability

The “Outside Influence” score is a composite metric that measures how closely a member of Congress's voting record aligns with the interests of their industry PAC donors. It combines two publicly available data sources:

  • PAC contributions by industry — from FEC filings, categorized into industries (Pharma, Oil & Gas, Tech, Defense, Finance)
  • Roll call votes — from Congress.gov, matched against a curated list of bills tagged to specific industries

For each industry where a candidate received PAC money, the score calculates what percentage of their votes on industry-relevant bills aligned with donor interests (e.g., voting “Yea” on a pro-industry bill or “Nay” on an anti-industry bill). This alignment rate is weighted by how much of the candidate's total PAC funding comes from that industry.

A high score suggests a pattern where voting behavior correlates with industry funding. A low score or zero means either no PAC data is available, no matching vote records exist, or the candidate's votes did not align with donor interests. This metric does not prove causation — correlation between funding and voting does not necessarily indicate that donations influenced votes.

PAC vs. Political Committee Contributions

VoteAmericaOnly labels certain campaign finance records as “Other Committee Contributions.” This reflects the FEC's classification of contributions from political committees, which is a broader category than traditional PACs. Key differences include:

  • Contribution Limits: Traditional PACs face strict limits ($5,000 per candidate/election), while independent-expenditure-only political committees (Super PACs) can accept unlimited contributions.
  • Direct Candidate Support: Traditional PACs can donate directly to federal candidates. Super PACs are prohibited from donating directly to or coordinating with candidates.
  • Source of Funds: Traditional PACs (especially Separate Segregated Funds) are limited to soliciting individuals associated with their sponsoring organization (e.g., employees, members). Super PACs can accept funds from individuals, unions, and corporations.
  • Definition Scope: “Political committee” is a broader term, defined by the FEC.gov as any group that receives contributions or makes expenditures over $1,000 to influence federal elections, including PACs, party committees, candidate committees, and Super PACs.

Because the FEC reports all political committee contributions under a single total, this site cannot automatically distinguish between industry PAC money, candidate-to-candidate transfers, and party committee support. The label “Other Committee Contributions” accurately reflects this aggregated nature.

Stock Trades

Stock trade data shown on candidate profiles comes from two public sources:

  • House members — Periodic Transaction Reports (PTR) filed with the U.S. House Clerk. These are PDF filings required under the STOCK Act. We download and parse the PDFs to extract transaction date, ticker symbol, transaction type (purchase/sale), amount range, and asset owner. Data covers 2012–2026.
  • Senators — Electronic Financial Disclosures (eFD) filed with the U.S. Senate, aggregated by the open-source senate-stock-watcher-data project.

Amount ranges (e.g., “$1,001 – $15,000”) reflect the disclosure brackets required by law — exact transaction amounts are not publicly disclosed. The “Owner” field indicates whether the trade was made by the member (Self), their spouse, a joint account, or a dependent child. Stock trade data does not indicate insider trading or any legal violation — it reflects legally required public disclosures.

Candidates Running for Different Offices

When a sitting member of Congress runs for a different office (e.g., a House member running for Governor, or a House member running for Senate), their candidate profile for the new race includes data from their current office. This means:

  • Biographical data (bio, photo, social media, contact info, education, occupation) is carried over because it describes the person, not the office.
  • Stock trades and travel disclosures are carried over because these are personal financial disclosures, not tied to a specific seat.
  • Campaign finance, vote records, and ratings are also shown to provide voters with the candidate's full public record. Vote records were cast during their current or previous term in Congress — governors do not cast legislative votes.

This data merging is performed automatically after each database update and is based on exact name matching within the same state.

No Endorsement

The inclusion of any candidate, PAC, or organization on this site does not constitute an endorsement or opposition. VoteAmericaOnly does not advocate for or against any candidate or political party.

Accuracy

While we strive to present accurate, up-to-date information, data may contain errors, omissions, or delays inherent to the original public filings. Users should verify critical information directly with the FEC or other primary sources before making decisions based on data shown here.

Not Legal or Financial Advice

Nothing on this site constitutes legal, financial, or professional advice. This site is for general informational purposes only.