# Candidates with company-linked contributions

`GET` `https://api.unusualwhales.com/api/politics/fec/candidates`

Federal candidates ranked by company-linked money received in a cycle: PAC-tier totals,
employee-tier estimates, number of distinct companies, and basic candidate info with the
linked politician where known.

This is an enterprise only endpoint. Contact dev@unusualwhales.com for details about accessing this data.


## Authentication

```
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY
```

## Query Parameters

| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|------|------|----------|-------------|
| `cycle` | integer | No | Two-year election cycle, e.g. 2026. Defaults to the current cycle. |
| `office` | string | No | house | senate | president |
| `state` | string | No | Two-letter state code. |
| `party` | string | No | Party code, e.g. DEM, REP. |
| `page` | integer | No | Page number (default 1). |
| `limit` | integer | No | Rows per page (default 50, max 200). |



## Example

### curl

```bash
curl -X GET "https://api.unusualwhales.com/api/politics/fec/candidates" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"
```

### Python

```python
import http.client

conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection("api.unusualwhales.com")
headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY", "Accept": "application/json"}
conn.request("GET", "/api/politics/fec/candidates", headers=headers)
response = conn.getresponse()
print(response.read().decode("utf-8"))
```

## Response Example

```json
{
  "cycle": 2026,
  "data": [
    {
      "candidate_id": 18342,
      "company_count": 47,
      "company_linked_total": "412500.00",
      "district": "09",
      "employee_total_estimated": "14500.00",
      "fec_candidate_id": "H8MI09068",
      "incumbent_challenge": "incumbent",
      "name": "DOE, JANE A.",
      "office": "house",
      "pac_total": "398000.00",
      "party": "REP",
      "politician_id": "1ccb3a38-6243-4c2f-bbcb-5986db785122",
      "politician_slug": "jane-doe",
      "state": "MI"
    }
  ],
  "limit": 50,
  "page": 1
}
```