search_candidates
Search Federal Election Commission records for political candidates by name to obtain identifiers needed for campaign finance research and transparency investigations.
Instructions
Search FEC records for candidates by name. Returns candidate identifiers and their principal campaign committee IDs, which are required for retrieving detailed financial information. Useful for campaign finance research and transparency investigations.
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| q | Yes | Candidate name to search for (e.g., "John Smith" or "Smith") | |
| election_year | No | Filter by election year (e.g., 2024) | |
| office | No | Filter by office: H=House, S=Senate, P=President | |
| state | No | Filter by state (2-letter code, e.g., "CA") | |
| party | No | Filter by party code (e.g., "DEM", "REP", "LIB") |