488 people have filed to run for president in 2028. Only 30 report raising any money.

By Graham Ostrander

WASHINGTON — More than two years before the 2028 presidential election, 488 people have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission declaring themselves candidates for president. Almost none of them have raised money, and none is a nationally known political figure.

An Inquisitor analysis of FEC records, drawn from the commission’s 2028 presidential candidate list and its public data interface on Oct. 25 and 26, found that only 30 of the 488 registered candidates report any receipts at all. Together, those 30 have raised $697,988.

Just 13 of the filers are classified by the FEC as statutory candidates, meaning their campaigns have crossed the commission’s $5,000 threshold in contributions or expenditures that triggers mandatory registration and reporting. The FEC lists the other 475 as not yet statutory candidates; people may file a statement of candidacy before they reach the threshold, a step the commission permits but does not demand.

The figures reflect the earliest phase of a presidential cycle in which the best-known prospective candidates in both parties — governors, senators and members of the Trump administration discussed as possible contenders — have not registered campaigns. Several of them instead run leadership PACs and other committees that can raise money for their political activities without formally declaring a candidacy, as the Inquisitor has reported.

Who has filed

The FEC’s list counts anyone who files a Statement of Candidacy, known as Form 2, for president. Filers choose their own party label, and the list includes long-shot candidates, people who registered for earlier elections and kept their registrations open, and write-in hopefuls.

By the party labels they chose, 126 filers identify as Republicans and 105 as Democrats. Another 110 call themselves independents, 22 list themselves as write-in candidates, 19 as unaffiliated and 15 list no party. Fifty-five list one of 20 other party labels, including the American Independent Party, the Libertarian Party and the Independence Party.

Source: FEC candidate and candidate-totals data. “Statutory candidates” are those the FEC lists with candidate status “C.” Receipts are cycle-to-date totals through each campaign’s most recent report.

Of the 488 filers, 394 have any financial summary on file with the commission; the remainder have registered without submitting a financial report. The FEC flags 36 filers as having raised funds at some point, a broader measure that includes money raised for earlier campaigns.

The pace of filing has picked up. According to the FEC’s records of each filer’s first submission, 127 filed for the first time in 2025 and 203 have done so in 2026. The remainder first registered in earlier years, in many cases for previous presidential races, and later added 2028 to their registrations.

The top fundraisers

Republican Phyllis Jager leads all 2028 filers in receipts. Her campaign committee, registered as Invisible President Phyllis Jager 2028 (FEC committee C00947226), reported $314,000 in receipts through Sept. 30, almost entirely from the candidate herself, and $282,578 in disbursements, leaving about $31,422 in cash. Jager registered on April 9, 2026, according to her FEC candidate page.

Diane Sare, who registered as unaffiliated in October 2025, is second, with $148,561 in receipts, nearly all of it — $148,216 — from individual donors, according to her campaign’s filings (committee C00924969). Her committee reported about $8,700 in cash and $7,510 in debts.

Republican Dan Greaney, who registered April 19, 2026, reported $78,023 in receipts, of which $22,841 came from individuals, according to his committee’s filings (C00947648). The committee reported $31,481 in cash and $55,182 in debts.

Source: FEC candidate totals for the 2028 election. Some disbursement totals exceed receipts because they include money carried over from earlier periods or earlier campaigns.

Shiva Ayyadurai, an independent whose registration covers both 2024 and 2028, reported $22,487 in receipts, $19,260 of it from himself, according to his committee’s filings (P40012015).

Jo Jorgensen, the Libertarian Party’s 2020 presidential nominee, appears on the list under a registration first filed in August 2019 that now lists both 2020 and 2028, according to her FEC candidate page. The commission’s records show $11,766 in receipts associated with that registration this cycle; she is the only filer outside the major-party and independent groups to report any money.

Among the 105 filers using the Democratic label, the largest total belongs to Wayne Anthony Pope Sr., whose registration dates to 2019 and covers the 2020, 2024 and 2028 elections. He reported $44,060 in receipts through July 15. No other Democratic filer has reported more than $8,000.

The parties have the money

The modest sums raised by declared candidates stand in sharp contrast to the national party committees, which are spending heavily ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections and which write the rules for their parties’ presidential nominating contests.

The Republican National Committee reported $341.5 million in receipts this cycle through Oct. 14, $76.2 million in cash and no debt, according to its FEC filings. The DNC reported $252.3 million in receipts, $21.6 million in cash and $15 million in debt over the same period, according to its filings.

Smaller parties that could field 2028 nominees operate on a far smaller scale.

Source: FEC committee totals for the 2026 cycle. Receipts for party committees include transfers and other non-contribution income.

The Libertarian National Committee raised $5.65 million and ended its latest reporting period with $444,362 in cash. The Green Party of the United States reported $285,782 in receipts and $95,805 in cash through Aug. 31. The Constitution Party National Committee reported $73,606 raised through July 31.

The Forward Party has two committees on file: a PAC that has raised $3.25 million this cycle and a newer national party committee that has raised $14,887.

Why the big names have not filed

Federal law does not require a prospective candidate to register until he or she has raised or spent more than $5,000 for a campaign, according to the FEC’s guidance. Once that threshold is crossed, the candidate must register and designate a principal campaign committee, which then files regular financial reports.

Politicians weighing national runs often delay that step for months or years, relying instead on leadership PACs, state political committees or nonprofit groups that are subject to different rules. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, for example, controls a federal leadership PAC, Fight Like Hell PAC, that reported $2.35 million in cash on Sept. 30, according to its FEC filings, but she has not registered as a presidential candidate, and said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that she had “nothing new to share” about her plans, NBC reported.

An Inquisitor review of the 488 names found no sitting governor, member of Congress or Cabinet member among them. Only the 13 statutory candidates are listed by the FEC as having crossed the registration threshold.

How we did this

The Inquisitor downloaded all candidate records for the 2028 presidential election from the FEC’s public API, which returned 488 filers, and matched them against the commission’s candidate financial totals for the 2028 election. Party groupings follow the party code each filer chose. “Statutory candidate” counts use the FEC’s candidate status field. Party committee figures come from the FEC’s committee totals for the 2026 cycle. Figures are as reported by the campaigns and committees and may change as amended reports are filed. The Inquisitor did not independently verify the accuracy of any filing.

The Inquisitor sought comment from the campaigns of the top fundraisers and from the national party committees. None had responded by publication.