How much has Turning Point USA's affiliated PAC spent annually in the last five election cycles?
Executive summary
Turning Point PAC (the formal PAC affiliated with Turning Point USA) reported $7,163,810 raised in the 2023–2024 cycle and gave $85,000 to federal candidates that cycle, while FEC committee pages and OpenSecrets provide cycle-level totals and spending breakdowns rather than a neat “annual” number for each of the last five election cycles (cycles normally cover two years) [1] [2] [3]. Available sources do not provide a single table of “annual” PAC spending for the last five election cycles; instead the FEC and OpenSecrets list cycle totals, independent expenditures, disbursements and candidate contributions that must be read together to estimate yearly activity [3] [4].
1. What the public records actually show: cycle totals, not tidy annual amounts
Federal Election Commission records and OpenSecrets present Turning Point PAC’s finances by election cycle (for example 2023–2024) and by disbursement type (independent expenditures, contributions to candidates, vendors), rather than reporting a single “annual” spend for each calendar year; the FEC committee page lists the committee’s total disbursements for Jan 1, 2023–Dec 31, 2024 and OpenSecrets reports cycle-level fundraising and candidate contributions [3] [1] [2].
2. The headline numbers for the 2023–2024 cycle
OpenSecrets shows Turning Point PAC raised $7,163,810 in the 2023–2024 cycle and recorded $85,000 in direct contributions to federal candidates that cycle; the FEC committee overview also lists total disbursements across Jan 1, 2023–Dec 31, 2024, but does not condense those into a single “annual” figure on its summary page [1] [2] [3].
3. How to interpret “spending” vs. “giving” vs. “outside expenditures”
Turning Point PAC’s activity divides into at least three buckets in available reporting: funds raised, direct contributions to candidates, and outside/independent spending (ads, vendor payments). OpenSecrets and the FEC separate those categories; OpenSecrets’ independent-expenditure pages show how PAC money was used in 2024 but emphasize that “issue ads” not explicitly advocating election or defeat may not appear in FEC totals [4]. That means cycle totals undercount some forms of influence that aren’t reported as FEC-style independent expenditures [4].
4. Past cycles: reporting exists but you must pull cycle pages individually
The set of sources provided does not contain a single consolidated five-cycle breakdown. OpenSecrets and the FEC maintain per-cycle pages (e.g., 2024, 2022) that list contributions, outside spending, and independent expenditures; to produce per-cycle or per-year totals you need to extract numbers from each cycle page and, if you want calendar-year numbers, prorate or re-sum filings within the cycle range [3] [5] [6].
5. Examples of how the PAC has spent in recent cycles (illustrative items)
Local and targeted spending is visible in reporting: for example, local Arizona reporting noted Turning Point PAC spent nearly $500,000 in the 2022 midterms on a mix of U.S. Senate, gubernatorial, secretary of state and state legislative races in Arizona, and much of that was payments to an advertising company (1Ten) run by a former TPUSA employee — showing the PAC’s money can flow heavily into vendor-driven ad and digital work rather than direct candidate checks [7]. Separately, investigative reporting described Turning Point Action/Turning Point-affiliated “dark money” efforts spending millions to help Trump in Wisconsin, illustrating how different affiliated entities (501(c) nonprofits, hybrid PACs) together create large influence operations even where a single PAC’s FEC-reported numbers look smaller [8].
6. Limitations in the available reporting and open questions
Available sources do not present a single answer for “annual” PAC spending across five election cycles; they present cycle-level raises and spending categories that require aggregation [3] [1]. OpenSecrets notes that certain categories (issue ads, some nonprofit spending coordinated with PACs) may not show up in FEC totals, and local reporting documents vendor payments and state-level activity that may not be captured neatly by federal PAC pages [4] [7] [8]. Available sources do not mention a consolidated five-cycle annual spending table for Turning Point PAC.
7. If you want exact numbers: where to pull them and the method
To produce precise per-cycle or per-calendar-year figures, pull the Turning Point PAC pages for each cycle on the FEC (committee disbursements by year/cycle) and OpenSecrets (cycle fundraising, candidate contributions, independent expenditures), then sum disbursements within your target calendar years or use cycle totals for consistent two-year comparisons [3] [1] [2] [4]. Because some influence activities arise outside PAC filings (nonprofit “dark money” groups or issue advocacy), read those affiliated-group reports (local press and watchdog investigations) alongside FEC/OpenSecrets data to understand the full picture [7] [8].
If you’d like, I can extract cycle totals from the FEC/OpenSecrets pages for the last five election cycles available in these sources and present them as cycle-by-cycle numbers (not calendar-year amounts).