[link removed] [[link removed]] JANUARY 29, 2026
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Tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Buckley v. Valeo, which laid the groundwork for Citizens United. Polling timed to the anniversary shows Americans want the campaign finance system to change. But before we get to that, let's dive deep into the final lobbying reports for 2025, which show (surprise!) that political influence spending reached records heights last year.
Lobbying firms took in a record $5 billion in 2025
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Lobbying activity surpassed $5 billion for the first time in 2025, as corporations, interest groups and other organizations increased their spending 14 percent during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to reporting by Emma Sullivan and Hien An Ngo and based on research by Dan Auble .
Spending reached $5.08 billion for the year, up 11 percent from 2024 after accounting for inflation. Both the adjusted and non-adjusted increases represent the largest jumps since quarterly disclosures began in 2008.
The record total came even as some of Washington’s biggest spenders, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Realtors, cut back from their 2024 lobbying expenditures, with new groups making up the difference. In 2025, 15,768 organizations reported lobbying activity, up from 14,061 the previous year, an increase of nearly 12 percent.
Over the same period, the size of the lobbying workforce grew more modestly, with the number of registered lobbyists rising by about 5 percent.
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The lobbying firms with the closest ties to the Trump administration raked in the most money in 2025. Leading the way was Ballard Partners [[link removed]] , which shattered records by taking in $88.1 million in 2025.
* Ballard Partners was founded by Brian Ballard [[link removed]] , who served as chairman of the Trump Victory PAC in 2016 and 2017. His firm raked in 3.5 times as much revenue than it had in 2024. A number of former Ballard Partners lobbyists now hold senior positions in the administration, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles [[link removed]] and Attorney General Pam Bondi [[link removed]] . The firm lost nearly a dozen clients less than a year into President Joe Biden’s term, but gained over 100 clients [[link removed]] since Trump’s return. Its 2025 clients included Palantir [[link removed]] , TikTok [[link removed]] , UnitedHealth Group [[link removed]] and Chevron [[link removed]] .
* Checkmate Government Relations [[link removed]] , which reported just $70,000 when filing its first quarterly report at the end of 2024, finished its first full year with $22.2 million in revenue. Checkmate is led by Ches McDowell, a hunting buddy of Donald Trump Jr [[link removed]] . McDowell also enlisted the son of one of Trump’s top 2024 campaign advisors, Chris LaCivita Jr. [[link removed]] , and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nephew, Jackson Hines [[link removed]] . The firm’s clients include the Sports Betting Alliance [[link removed]] , Binance [[link removed]] , Eli Lilly [[link removed]] and Novo Nordisk [[link removed]] . Binance hired Checkmate in September to lobby the White House on issues including cryptocurrency and “executive relief." A month late, founder Changpeng Zhao, who had pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering in 2023, was pardoned by Trump.
* BGR Group [[link removed]] raked in $71.5 million in 2025, a 59 percent increase from the previous year. The firm employs former Trump campaign adviser David Urban [[link removed]] as its managing director [[link removed]] . It also previously employed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy [[link removed]] as recently as 2023. BGR’s list of clients included Verizon Communications [[link removed]] , the Government of India [[link removed]] and Columbia University [[link removed]] in 2025.
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Lobbying spending increased across every sector in 2025. Consistent lobbying giants (the health sector [[link removed]] , finance, insurance and real estate sector [[link removed]] , and communications and electronics sector [[link removed]] ) spent the most lobbying the federal government.
* The health care sector invested a record $868 million in lobbying as it navigated uncertainty around federal policy, including cuts to Medicaid [[link removed]] from the tax and spending package Trump signed in July. The sector includes pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and nursing homes, health services and health professionals.
* The finance, insurance and real estate sector poured $711 million into lobbying. The sector’s increase in spending was partially driven by the securities and investment industry [[link removed]] , which spent $195 million in 2025, up 26 percent from the previous year.
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Chart of the week
50 years after Buckley v. Valeo, the public wants constraints on money in politics
Friday, Jan. 30, marks the 50th anniversary of the Buckley v. Valeo, the landmark Supreme Court case that laid the groundwork for modern elections.
These days, everyone talked about the Citizens United case, but that 2010 ruling built on a decision issued in 1976. That year, the Supreme Court upheld limits on individuals' contributions to political campaigns, parties and political action committees but struck down caps on independent expenditures as an infringement on free speech. (Citizens United later expanded on that ruling by also allowing corporations to make unlimited, election-related independent expenditures.)
American Promise, which advocates for a constitutional amendment that would empower Congress and the states to set limits on campaign financing, just released the results of a national survey on attitudes toward the role of money in politics.
Bar chart showing polling results [[link removed]]
The survey also asked whether a number of political activities are forms of protected Free Speech. Only 15 percent of respondents said spending unlimited dollars on political campaigns is protected by the First Amendment, including 22 percent of Republicans, 12 percent of Democrats and 11 percent of independents.
Bar chart showing polling results [[link removed]]
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Dive in to Donor Lookup
Want to know who’s funding the candidates and causes shaping our democracy? With our Donor Lookup [[link removed]] tools, you can quickly and easily:
* Search millions of federal campaign contributions by name, employer, or location.
* See who’s giving to which candidates, parties and PACs.
* Explore patterns of political giving that help explain the forces behind elections.
Whether you’re a concerned voter, journalist, researcher, or just a curious citizen, Donor Lookup puts transparency at your fingertips.
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What else we're reading
Senators introduce state constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United [[link removed]] (States Newsroom)
Trump’s return supercharges lobbying revenues [[link removed]] (Politico)
Higher Ed Spent Millions on Lobbying in 2025 [[link removed]] (Inside Higher Ed )
MS Secretary of State sets sights on campaign finance transparency [[link removed]] (Mississippi Clarion Ledger)
OpenSecrets in the News
See our media citations from outlets around the nation this week:
Trump puts Republicans in a tough spot on gun rights [[link removed]] (Axios)
The bottom line: The NRA has spent tens of millions of dollars on federal elections, primarily backing Republican candidates, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets.
Questions raised about Rep. John Garamendi's age [[link removed]] (CBS News Sacramento)
And according to the website OpenSecrets, in his last congressional race, Garamendi raised more than a $1 million to his Republican opponents' $20,000.
Spending bill would block DHS from arming long-range drones [[link removed]] (Roll Call)
San Diego-based General Atomics, which makes the MQ-9 drones, contributes to members on both sides of the aisle through individual donations and its political action committee. Top recipients in the 2024 campaign cycle, according to OpenSecrets.org, include Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., the House Democratic Caucus chair, and Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.
Trump’s ‘pay-to-play’ politics fuel a ‘new gilded age’, experts say [[link removed]] (The Guardian)
Trump’s inaugural committee raked in $14m in contributions from the crypto industry, and Trump-affiliated committees in the election raised about $3.6m from crypto interests, according to the nonpartisan OpenSecrets, which tracks money in politics. OpenSecrets totals do not include donations that were made in bitcoin or other crypto tokens which would raise the amounts from crypto interests by a few million dollars.
House Republicans barely defeat Venezuela war powers resolution to check Trump’s military actions [[link removed]] (The Associated Press)
In one of the first transactions, the U.S. granted Vitol, the world’s largest independent oil broker, a license worth roughly $250 million. A senior partner at Vitol, John Addison, gave roughly $6 million to Trump-aligned political action committees during the presidential election, according to donation records compiled by OpenSecrets.
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