Florida Money Watch is a database that centralizes campaign finance information from county-level elections across Florida, making it easier for journalists to track political donations and expenditures.
Florida Money Watch lets users search, filter, and compare campaign finance data across Florida counties. Users can track donations and spending by candidate or race, and download data for analysis or reporting. It centralizes records that are otherwise spread across individual county election offices.
The data is gathered from the official websites of each county’s Supervisor of Elections and Florida’s Division of Elections.
Currently, Florida Money Watch includes data from 65 of Florida’s 67 counties. The only exceptions are Jefferson and Hardee counties.
It varies by county. Since the data comes from each county’s Supervisor of Elections website, some have older records than others. The earliest available data goes back to the year 2000.
Florida Money Watch includes candidates and their campaign finance transactions, such as contributions and expenditures, for county-level elections across Florida. In some cases, it also covers municipal offices when their data is managed by county Supervisor of Elections websites.
Updates run overnight each day.
Yes. Since the data is sourced directly from different county Supervisor of Elections websites, it reflects inconsistencies and errors present in the original records. Possible issues include variations in office names across counties, election dates that don’t match the actual election calendar, and candidates whose names appear differently across races. While efforts have been made to improve formatting and consistency, some limitations remain due to the nature of the source data.
Yes. The website offers export options in formats such as Excel and PDF.
Yes. If you use the data or visualizations in your reporting, please credit Florida Money Watch by name instead of citing it only as “public records.”
No. Florida Money Watch is an independent, nonpartisan project and is not affiliated with any Florida government agency or office.
The site is independently maintained and funded by its creator. There are currently no outside funders, though ads may be added in the future to help cover maintenance costs.
In March 2025, Joaquin Cabrera Petrone completed Florida Money Watch as a capstone project for his Master of Arts in Mass Communication – Professional Communication Program at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications.
The project, representing nearly 15 months of development, was made possible through the vital mentorship of visiting lecturer Brandon Meyer.
Cabrera Petrone dedicates this work to capstone committee members Mindy McAdams and Dr. Norman P. Lewis, whose years of service have elevated hundreds of web and data journalism students.