WASHINGTON — The political action committees of 12 major defense contractors gave $10.8 million directly to the campaigns of federal candidates in the 2025-26 election cycle, with 57.5% going to Republicans and 41.7% to Democrats, according to an Inquisitor analysis of Federal Election Commission records.
The money flowed most heavily to the lawmakers who write the defense budget, in both parties. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, received $120,000, the maximum $10,000 from each of the 12 PACs. Next were Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), a senior appropriator, at $113,000; House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) at $106,750; and Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat, at $106,000.
Corporate PACs are funded by voluntary contributions from a company’s executives, employees and shareholders, not from corporate treasuries, which federal law bars from giving directly to federal candidates, according to the FEC’s guidance for corporations. A PAC that qualifies as a multicandidate committee may give a candidate up to $5,000 per election, or $10,000 for a primary and general election combined, under FEC contribution limits. Several of the PACs reached that ceiling with dozens of incumbents.
The figures cover contributions the FEC had itemized and processed as of its latest bulk data release, which runs through Aug. 31 for some PACs and through Oct. 14 for others, before the Nov. 3 election. Post-general election reports, due Dec. 3, will add the final weeks of the campaign.
The PACs, side by side
Boeing’s PAC gave the most to candidates, $1.59 million, followed by Northrop Grumman’s at $1.42 million and General Dynamics’ and Lockheed Martin’s at about $1.29 million each. Every PAC gave a majority of its candidate money to Republicans, who hold majorities in both chambers in the current Congress. The shares ranged from 51% at RTX’s PAC to 68% at the PACs of BAE Systems Inc. and Textron.
The FEC’s summary totals, which run through Oct. 14 for all 12 committees, show the PACs raised $24.7 million and reported $22.2 million in contributions to federal candidates and other political committees. That broader figure includes gifts to party committees and to lawmakers’ leadership PACs, which the candidate-level data below do not.
| PAC (sponsor) | Receipts | Contributions to candidates and committees | Itemized to candidates | To Republicans | To Democrats | Candidates funded | Itemized through |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boeing | $4.17M | $2.71M | $1.59M | 61% | 39% | 309 | Oct. 14 |
| Northrop Grumman | $3.53M | $3.41M | $1.42M | 52% | 47% | 216 | Sept. 30 |
| General Dynamics | $2.32M | $2.68M | $1.29M | 58% | 41% | 272 | Aug. 31 |
| Lockheed Martin | $3.79M | $2.90M | $1.28M | 58% | 40% | 316 | Aug. 31 |
| RTX | $2.57M | $2.08M | $1.16M | 51% | 48% | 272 | Aug. 31 |
| L3Harris | $1.88M | $2.24M | $0.89M | 52% | 48% | 178 | Sept. 30 |
| Leidos | $1.55M | $1.59M | $0.87M | 54% | 46% | 176 | Aug. 31 |
| BAE Systems Inc. | $1.19M | $1.15M | $0.59M | 68% | 32% | 141 | Aug. 31 |
| Textron | $1.04M | $1.01M | $0.58M | 68% | 31% | 146 | Sept. 30 |
| General Atomics | $1.10M | $1.24M | $0.56M | 66% | 33% | 98 | Aug. 31 |
| HII | $1.13M | $0.93M | $0.36M | 58% | 42% | 105 | Oct. 14 |
| Booz Allen Hamilton | $0.41M | $0.31M | $0.20M | 54% | 46% | 73 | Aug. 31 |
| Total | $24.68M | $22.24M | $10.80M | 57.5% | 41.7% | 463 recipients |
Some PACs reported giving more than they raised this cycle because they began 2025 with money in the bank. Percentages may not add to 100 because a small share of contributions went to committees the FEC files do not tie to a party. Most of that, $63,500, went to the campaign committee of Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho); counting it with Republicans raises their share to 58.1%.
Who got the most
Of 463 candidates who received money from at least one of the 12 PACs, 12 received money from all of them. Ten of those 12 are Republicans. The other two are Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, and Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-Va.).
The top of the list reads like a roster of the House’s defense committees. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the Armed Services chairman, received $103,500 from all 12 PACs. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee on defense, received $104,000 from 11. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), the top Democrat on that subcommittee, received $92,500 from 11.
| Recipient | Party-state | Chamber | Total from the 12 PACs | Number of the 12 PACs giving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rob Wittman | R-Va. | House | $120,000 | 12 |
| Mario Diaz-Balart | R-Fla. | House | $113,000 | 12 |
| Tom Cole | R-Okla. | House | $106,750 | 12 |
| Adam Smith | D-Wash. | House | $106,000 | 11 |
| Ken Calvert | R-Calif. | House | $104,000 | 11 |
| Pete Aguilar | D-Calif. | House | $104,000 | 12 |
| Mike Rogers | R-Ala. | House | $103,500 | 12 |
| Dale Strong | R-Ala. | House | $98,500 | 12 |
| Betty McCollum | D-Minn. | House | $92,500 | 11 |
| Donald Norcross | D-N.J. | House | $91,000 | 11 |
| Trent Kelly | R-Miss. | House | $90,000 | 11 |
| Chris Coons | D-Del. | Senate | $89,000 | 11 |
| Steve Womack | R-Ark. | House | $89,000 | 11 |
| David Valadao | R-Calif. | House | $89,000 | 11 |
| Mike Johnson | R-La. | House | $87,500 | 10 |
| Jake Ellzey | R-Texas | House | $85,500 | 11 |
| Jen Kiggans | R-Va. | House | $84,000 | 12 |
| Hakeem Jeffries | D-N.Y. | House | $83,500 | 10 |
| Scott DesJarlais | R-Tenn. | House | $82,000 | 10 |
| Jack Bergman | R-Mich. | House | $80,500 | 12 |
Party leaders on both sides drew money from most of the PACs. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) received $87,500 from 10, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) $83,500 from 10 and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) $80,000 from nine.
House over Senate
The PACs directed most of their candidate money to House races, where every seat was on the ballot. About $9.09 million went to House candidates and $1.50 million to Senate candidates; the remaining $214,000 went to committees that could not be matched to a House or Senate candidate record in the FEC’s candidate file.
| PAC | To House candidates | To Senate candidates | Senate share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boeing | $1,318,500 | $240,500 | 15% |
| Northrop Grumman | $1,203,500 | $173,000 | 12% |
| Lockheed Martin | $1,084,000 | $163,500 | 13% |
| General Dynamics | $1,083,700 | $182,000 | 14% |
| RTX | $993,500 | $162,500 | 13% |
| L3Harris | $789,500 | $95,500 | 11% |
| Leidos | $769,500 | $89,000 | 10% |
| BAE Systems Inc. | $523,000 | $66,500 | 11% |
| Textron | $452,250 | $127,000 | 22% |
| General Atomics | $422,500 | $99,000 | 19% |
| HII | $291,000 | $59,000 | 17% |
| Booz Allen Hamilton | $157,000 | $38,500 | 20% |
In the Senate, the top recipient was Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, at $89,000. He was followed by Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, at $80,000 from all 12 PACs, and Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) at $78,000.
| Senator | Party-state | Total | Number of the 12 PACs giving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Coons | D-Del. | $89,000 | 11 |
| Mike Rounds | R-S.D. | $80,000 | 12 |
| Susan Collins | R-Maine | $78,000 | 11 |
| Cindy Hyde-Smith | R-Miss. | $69,500 | 9 |
| Jack Reed | D-R.I. | $67,500 | 11 |
| Ashley Moody | R-Fla. | $67,500 | 10 |
| John Cornyn | R-Texas | $67,000 | 9 |
| Dan Sullivan | R-Alaska | $66,000 | 10 |
The contractors behind the PACs
The sponsoring companies are among the Pentagon’s biggest suppliers. Lockheed Martin received $74.6 billion in Defense Department contract obligations in fiscal 2025, more than General Dynamics ($31.4 billion) and RTX ($30.7 billion) combined, according to an Inquisitor tally of USAspending.gov records. The companies also lobby on their own behalf: Lockheed reported $15.55 million in federal lobbying spending for 2025, RTX $13.92 million, General Dynamics $13.47 million and Boeing $11.34 million, according to Lobbying Disclosure Act reports.
PAC contributions are capped, while spending by outside groups is not. Wittman’s $120,000 from the 12 PACs compares with the $11.5 million outside groups had spent against him in Virginia’s 1st District by late October, the Inquisitor reported.
Of the 20 top recipients in Table 2, 14 are Republicans and six are Democrats. Democrats will take control of the House in January after the Nov. 3 election, the Inquisitor has reported. Smith and McCollum, both near the top of the list, are currently their party’s senior members on the Armed Services Committee and the defense appropriations subcommittee.
What comes next
Post-general election reports due Dec. 3 will show what the PACs gave in the campaign’s final weeks, and year-end reports in January will close out 2026. The FEC’s bulk files are updated weekly as the agency processes itemized transactions, so the candidate-level totals here will rise as later reports are entered.
How we did this
We identified the federally registered PACs sponsored by 12 of the largest Defense Department contractors, using the FEC’s committee master file, and pulled every itemized contribution they reported to federal candidates (FEC transaction types 24K and 24Z, excluding memo entries) from the FEC’s 2025-26 “contributions from committees to candidates” bulk file, downloaded Nov. 10. Refunds are netted. Party labels come from the FEC candidate file or, where a candidate record was missing, the committee file. Receipts and total contributions come from each committee’s FEC summary through Oct. 14. Data and code are available on request.
Featured photo: Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) at a House Armed Services Committee hearing, March 30, 2022. (TSgt. Jack Sanders, U.S. Air Force / public domain)
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