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K Street College Classic 2025: State schools dominate the lobbying brackets
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With the NCAA men’s basketball tournament kicking off this week, it’s time for the annual K Street College Classic. Rather than sitting back and waiting to see which team dominates on the court, OpenSecrets measures the teams on the strength of their lobbying budgets.
Last year, the 68 schools that received bids to the tournament spent a collective $16.5 million lobbying the federal government. While a number of the high seeds advanced far in the College Classic, our champion — the University of Texas [[link removed]] – emerged from the “First Four” play-in round. Let’s see March Madness match that kind of upset.
After reaching the College Classic’s Final Four last year [[link removed]] , the Texas Longhorns take home the championship in 2025 as the only school to spend seven figures on lobbying in 2024 ($1,428,000). That was more than enough to carry the school all the way from the play-in game (topping Xavier University [[link removed]] , which hasn’t lobbied since 2008) to the finals, where it defeated the University of Florida [[link removed]] — doubling the Gators’ total of $736,000.
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Texas used a number of outside firms, primarily Cornerstone Government Affairs, and 22 lobbyists who primarily focused on lobbying for government funding, defense and scientific research. Among those lobbyists were a number of “revolvers” — elected officials, staffers and regulators who leave government service to work on K Street.
Leading the way was Kate Raetz [[link removed]] , who runs federal relations for the state after spending eight years serving in the Texas House of Representatives and two more working for the governor. Cody Willming [[link removed]] was the school’s other top lobbyist. Willming is the UT system’s federal budget and policy director; he worked on Capitol Hill for eight years.
While Texas deployed nearly two dozen lobbyists, the Florida Gators got by with just four. Two of the lobbyists worked for the university’s engineering school, while the others were hired through the firm Strategic Marketing Innovations [[link removed]] . They focused on many of the same issues as the University of Texas lobbyists.
Florida was the only top seed to reach the Final Four this year. Duke University [[link removed]] ($784,000) made it to the Elite Eight, but Auburn [[link removed]] lost in the second round and the University of Houston [[link removed]] , with only $40,000 in lobbying spending, got knocked out in the first round by Southern Illinois University [[link removed]] /Edwardsville, which spent just $5,000 more.
The Purdue Boilermakers [[link removed]] spent the second most amount on lobbying in 2024 ($820,000) but ran into Texas in the Midwest bracket’s semifinals. Texas A&M [[link removed]] and the University of Wisconsin [[link removed]] joined Texas and Florida in the Final Four.
When it comes to schools that are part of large systems, the rules for the K Street College Classic can make or break their chances of winning. For example:
* Any school that does its own lobbying gets credit for that spending.
* If individual schools within a system do not lobby, and only one of the schools makes the tournament, it gets credit for the entire system’s lobbying.
* If individual schools within a system do not lobby, and multiple make the tournament, none of them get any credit for lobbying.
Here’s how that played out this year:
Both of the University of North Carolina [[link removed]] schools that made the tournament (Chapel Hill) and (Wilmington) reported their own lobbying, so they each were assigned a dollar figure. Because Edwardsville was the only SIU school to make the tournament, it gets to take credit for the entire system’s lobbying. Both UCLA and the University of California, San Diego made the tournament but neither reported their own lobbying so they are each assigned $0 — even though the University of California system spent $2.2 million [[link removed]] in 2024.
The Longhorns, as the only school in the University of Texas system to get a tournament bid, likewise benefited from the rules by getting credit for all lobbying expenditures.
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Trump administration profile: Marco Rubio
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Marco Rubio, who served more than a dozen years in the Senate, was unanimously confirmed [[link removed]] on Jan. 20 to be President Donald Trump’s secretary of state. Rubio ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and has since become a loyal supporter. But in recent days he has butted heads with Elon Musk [[link removed]] over management of the State Department.
Who is he?
Rubio, 53, started his political career as a lawyer before entering politics as a member of the West Miami City Commission in 1998. He was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2000 and became speaker in 2006. He left the state House in 2008 and won his first Senate race two years later. Rubio was considered a strong contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, but suspended his campaign [[link removed]] in March after losing Florida to Trump. He continued to serve in the Senate until winning confirmation as the first Latino secretary of state in January.
By the numbers
* Rubio raised $52,3 million [[link removed]] during his 2016 presidential campaign while outside groups supporting his candidacy raised over $110 million. Among the largest contributors were Norman Braman, a longtime supporter [[link removed]] and owner of a luxury car dealer in Florida who contributed more than $7.2 million with his wife, and Peter Singer, president of the investment firm Elliot Management, who contributed more than $5 million.
* Vox described Rubio as “ the dark money candidate [[link removed]] ,” as a group called the Conservative Solution Project [[link removed]] did not disclose its donors while paying for $85 million in television ads [[link removed]] that supported Rubio’s presidential campaign. The Campaign Legal Center, an elections watchdog, said the Conservative Solution Project was breaking the law [[link removed]] by airing ads that supported Rubio while being registered as a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt social welfare group that is not allowed to favor a candidate.
* Rubio was one of the top recipients of money from the oil and gas industry in 2015 and 2016. He received $975,000 [[link removed]] , a little less than his opponents Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton and Ted Cruz.
* According to government records, Rubio still owes vendors more than $800,000 [[link removed]] for marketing, media production, consulting, legal fees and web services for his presidential campaign.
* Rubio raised $21,500 [[link removed]] during his initial state House campaign in 2000. His 2004 campaign raised $288,000 [[link removed]] and during his last run in 2006, Rubio raised $234,000 [[link removed]] – more than 10 times the amount received during his first campaign.
* Rubio’s Senate campaign committee raised more than $50.2 million [[link removed]] during his last election cycle. Among his top contributors were individuals who donated through the Pro-Israel America PAC ( $104,800 [[link removed]] ), The Villages ( $78,405 [[link removed]] ), and the Republican Jewish Coalition ( $72,736 [[link removed]] ).
* According to his financial disclosure report [[link removed]] , Rubio has a mortgage valued between $500,001 and $1 million, a credit card loan between $10,001 and $15,000 and a personal loan between $15,001 and $50,000. The corresponding values of his homeownings are not included in the report. Rubio received $20,784 from Florida International University for a position as an adjunct professor, a contract he will not continue as secretary of state. He reported between $15,001 and $50,000 income in royalties for his book “Decades of Decadence: How Our Spoiled Elites Blew America’s Inheritance of Liberty, Security, and Prosperity.” Rubio also reported an income of between $2,002 and $30,000 in combined shares in Coca Cola and Cisco, both of which he said to have divested. He earned $174,000 per year as a senator.
Why does it matter?
* As secretary of state, Rubio carries out Trump’s foreign policy agenda. Rubio can influence international trade, market access and regulatory environments for international businesses, among others — an especially influential position as Trump levies tariffs against trading partners. For his first trip [[link removed]] as secretary of state, Rubio traveled to Central America to talk about tariffs, migration, drug trafficking and the Panama Canal after Trump threatened to retake it. Rubio said [[link removed]] that Trump believes Chinese influence in the canal is violating neutrality, which the treaty between the U.S. and Panama requires [[link removed]] . The American investment company BlackRock recently announced [[link removed]] it would buy two ports at both ends of the Panama Canal from the Hong Kong firm CK Hutchison.
* He was appointed acting administrator for USAID in February, where he announced plans to cancel [[link removed]] the majority of its programs on March 10.
* Rubio has extensive experience working on foreign affairs as a senator and is known for his criticism of China and Russia. He wrote the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act [[link removed]] , a law supporting the human rights of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region, and he co-led the Hong Kong Relations Act [[link removed]] to enforce pressure on the Chinese government through sanctions. As secretary of state, Rubio participates in peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. He recently headed to Saudi Arabia [[link removed]] to discuss the ending of the war with Ukrainian officials, after a fall-out between Trump and Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. Although Rubio has been known for his stark criticism towards the Kremlin throughout his career, he now seems [[link removed]] to have realigned his positions with Trump’s softer stance regarding Russia.
* Rubio is also an important actor in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Rubio has been a vocal Israel supporter throughout his career, a position that has not changed since he was appointed to the Cabinet. Rubio recently signed an emergency declaration, bypassing Congress, that provides $4 billion [[link removed]] in military assistance to Israel. In February, Rubio said that Gaza is “ not habitable” [[link removed]] and people have to relocate while the region is rebuilt. Trump has suggested the United States permanently remove people from Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East” — which sparked widespread criticism.
Additional profiles
* Sean Duffy [[link removed]] , secretary of transportation
* Susie Wiles [[link removed]] , director national intelligence
* Tulsi Gabbard [[link removed]] , director national intelligence
* Kash Patel [[link removed]] , director of the FBI
* Kristi Noem [[link removed]] , secretary of homeland security
* Robert F. Kennedy Jr. [[link removed]] , secretary of health and human services
* Linda McMahon [[link removed]] , secretary of education
* Elise Stefanik [[link removed]] , ambassador to the United Nations
* Doug Burgum [[link removed]] , secretary of the interior
* Pete Hegseth [[link removed]] , secretary of defense
* Pam Bondi [[link removed]] , attorney general
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Sunshine Week: Campaign finance proposals face long odds this year – with a few exceptions
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To mark Sunshine Week, a time to promote government transparency and access to public records, OpenSecrets analyzed the meager progress of such bills across the country.
Of the 300-plus bills that have been introduced in state legislatures this year, only a handful of states have passed any of them.
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What else we're reading
Bipartisan group of delegates vote down proposal allowing corporate donations to West Virginia political candidates [[link removed]] (The Parkersburg News and Sentinel)
U.S. Rep. Jim Baird fined for failing to disclose campaign loan repayment [[link removed]] (NPR)
Dark Money Groups Dropped $7 Million on Ohio Supreme Court Races [[link removed]] (Cleveland Scene)
Burr, Ferguson register to lobby [[link removed]] (Politico)
OpenSecrets in the News
See our media citations from outlets around the nation this week:
Crypto’s Clout in Washington Is Soaring [[link removed]] (Bloomberg)
In the meantime, crypto titans pumped money into the best-funded alliance of corporate political action committees in US history — Fairshake PAC and two affiliated entities. They devoted $40 million to defeating Brown in the November election and replacing him with Republican Bernie Moreno, a blockchain entrepreneur and crypto enthusiast. The industry’s PAC spent many millions more backing several freshmen Democratic senators like Ruben Gallego of Arizona who are friendlier to crypto, per OpenSecrets data.
Trump Administration Quietly Lifted Ban on Dominican Sugar Company Over Forced Labor [[link removed]] (The New York Times)
In 2024, the Fanjul Corporation gave a $1 million donation to Make America Great Again, a political action committee supporting Mr. Trump, as well as a $413,000 donation to the Republican National Committee, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics. The corporation also made smaller donations to Democrats.
Tesla expands D.C. footprint, leases former X office space for lobbying shop [[link removed]] (Washington Business Journal)
Tesla in 2024 spent $750,000 lobbying the likes of the Environmental Protection Agency, The U.S. Department of Transportation, Department of Commerce and the White House, according to watchdog OpenSecrets. The company last year also paid outside lobbyists Cassidy & Associates, Ernst & Young and Pioneer Public Affairs another $680,000 combined, per Open Secrets.
How Pam Bondi Got Rich In Just Six Years Out Of Office [[link removed]] (Forbes)
How’d she do it? First, she started working as a lobbyist for Florida-based Ballard Partners. According to a database maintained by the political transparency group OpenSecrets, big names like General Motors, Carnival and Major League Baseball—plus 13 other clients, like GEO Group, which invests in private prisons—hired her in 2019, presumably hoping to leverage her close relations to Donald Trump’s first administration.
Howard Lutnick's net worth: From Wall Street heavyweight to Commerce Secretary [[link removed]] (TheStreet)
Lutnick, a Republican, was active in the 2024 presidential election, donating millions of dollars to political action committees (PACs), according to a record of transactions compiled by OpenSecrets, which tracks political contributions.
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The OpenSecrets merch store is here!
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We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the OpenSecrets Merch Store [[link removed]] ! Now, you can support our mission while looking good doing it. Every purchase helps us provide comprehensive and reliable data, analysis and tools for policymakers, storytellers and citizens.
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Join us in wearing your support — transparency has never been more comfortable!
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