Baumgartner’s Donor Story

Where Michael Baumgartner’s money is raised, and what that geography says about who his campaign is built to serve.

An analysis of the April 15 Federal Election Commission’s filings of Representative Michael Baumgartner’s campaign for reelection uncovers a clear pattern.¹ Local small-donor support is diminishing while outside political action committees and corporate interests are increasing their investment. Less than thirty cents on every dollar entering his campaign is traceable to a donor inside WA-5.¹ The rest comes from wealthy individuals in other corners of the state, and from PACs based in Washington DC and the major fundraising centers around the country. PAC and committee money accounts for nearly a quarter of his receipts, more than twice what he has raised from small-dollar donors.¹ Behind those dollars are names, committees, and a legislative record.

Two weeks after the April 15 FEC filing window closed, Baumgartner began a “12 Counties in 12 Days” listening tour through Eastern Washington. His District Director, Dan Bisbee, told Spokane Public Radio on April 30 that “most of these stops will be private meetings with city officials.” Only three of the twelve stops are town halls. The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin reported the same week that the May 1 stops in Waitsburg and Dayton were Baumgartner’s first publicly scheduled in-person meetings in Walla Walla and Columbia counties since January 2025, a fifteen-month gap. The shift followed his March 2025 town hall at Whitworth University. He faced 800 angry constituents. He told reporters afterward that his next town hall might be conducted by phone. Since then, he has substituted online town halls on Facebook and private gatherings. His FEC filings show that he is raising money outside his district and avoiding face-to-face contact with the voters who live there.

The Donor Map

Inside the district, Baumgartner’s disclosed donor base is overwhelmingly Spokane. Of 513 unique WA-5 itemized donors, 414 live in greater Spokane. The city’s South Hill alone produced 125 donors, the largest single neighborhood cluster in his donor file. Pullman adds 19 donors. Walla Walla and the Clarkston-Asotin area add 35 between them.¹

The rural counties that make up the rest of WA-5 are the district’s most reliably Republican. Together they produced just 34 individual donors. Columbia, Adams, and Franklin counties produced none.¹ The communities that delivered Baumgartner’s Republican margins at the ballot box in 2024 are not funding his campaign this cycle.

Outside the district, his individual support is concentrated in two places. Nearly half of his non-WA-5 individual money comes from King County. Beyond the state, his disclosed individual contributions cluster in Delaware, Idaho, California, South Florida, and the Washington DC metro area.¹

Inside the Beltway

Across this cycle, 118 PACs have contributed to Baumgartner’s campaign, totaling $317,050.^1,2 Most are based near the seat of federal government, in Washington, DC and Northern Virginia, with a smaller share in other states. Carmela Conroy, the Democrat running against him, has raised $300,714 this cycle, more than all of the other challengers combined and roughly double her 2024 pace; of that, $1,100 came from three political action committees.³ PAC dependence is not a requirement of running for Congress. A pattern runs through Baumgartner’s contributors: they are concentrated in the policy areas his three House committees handle.

The full list, with state and dollar amounts, is published here.

What the PACs Want

Baumgartner sits on three House committees: Education and Workforce, the Judiciary, and Foreign Affairs.⁴ His PAC contributors line up with those committees. His Foreign Affairs subcommittee covers the Middle East and North Africa. Among his PAC contributors with stakes in foreign-policy decisions are the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), two Turkish-American PACs, the Pakistani-American Public Affairs Committee, and three defense contractors with substantial foreign-military-sales business.¹ Among his contributors with stakes in Education and Workforce jurisdiction are the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA), Cambia Health, the American Hospital Association, Premera, Molina, Guardian Life, and John Hancock.¹ Among his contributors with stakes in Judiciary jurisdiction are Microsoft, Amazon, the Motion Picture Association, ASCAP, the International Trademark Association, and BlackRock.¹ Every PAC on the list has a direct stake in Baumgartner’s committee work.

Innovate Without Permission

In September 2025, Baumgartner introduced H.R. 5388, the American Artificial Intelligence Leadership and Uniformity Act.⁵ The bill establishes a five-year period during which no state may enforce any law regulating artificial intelligence systems in interstate commerce. It would override state AI laws passed in California and Colorado.^5,6 In his announcement, Baumgartner described the bill as codifying a Trump executive order and preventing a “patchwork” of state regulation, and said America “will win if we trust free people to innovate without asking the government for permission.” The bill was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which Baumgartner does not sit on. He authored it anyway. Microsoft, Amazon, and BlackRock contributed a combined $7,500 to his campaign.¹ In November 2025, GovFacts reported that Big Tech companies have collectively spent more than one billion dollars lobbying for the federal preemption outcome that H.R. 5388 would deliver.⁶

What The Iran Resolutions Bought

AIPAC’s PAC contributed $10,000 to the Baumgartner campaign across two maximum contributions, one for the primary and one for the general election.¹ In August 2025, the American Israel Education Foundation, AIPAC’s affiliated nonprofit, paid for Baumgartner’s weeklong trip to Israel, his first as a member of Congress.⁷ As a member of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, Baumgartner has sponsored or cosponsored three non-binding Iran-and-Israel resolutions and one bipartisan bill in the current Congress: House Resolution 398, which he introduced in May 2025, declares it U.S. policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon;⁸ a follow-on resolution affirms the administration’s policy on dismantling Iran’s nuclear program;⁹ House Resolution 166, which he cosponsored, condemns the Iranian regime’s terrorism and supports Iranian opposition;¹⁰ and a bipartisan bill sanctioning hostage-takers passed the Foreign Affairs Committee.¹¹ AIPAC’s published policy page on Iran lists the nuclear-policy resolutions among its priority legislation.¹² On March 6, 2026, Baumgartner published an op-ed in National Review on the U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran, framing the campaign as “not Iraq 2.0” and arguing for sustained pressure to fracture the regime’s war-making capacity.¹³ AIPAC’s PAC contributed its second maximum contribution of $5,000 five days later.

The Old Apparatus

Cathy McMorris Rodgers, in her last campaign cycle as the WA-5 incumbent (2021-2022), had raised $3.6 million in her first fifteen months.¹⁴ That is about two and a half times Baumgartner’s pace through the same window of this cycle. Half of her early-cycle money came from political action committees, more than twice Baumgartner’s PAC share. The national fundraising network McMorris Rodgers built has not reappeared in the Baumgartner campaign.

Vulnerability

Baumgartner won his seat in 2024 with votes from his district. He is trying to stay in office with money that does not come from his constituents. Incumbents are reelected when they have district support. They lose when they don't. OpenSecrets' tracking data shows his individual fundraising this cycle is running more than 8 percent below his 2024 pace.¹⁵

Baumgartner is vulnerable.

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Endnotes

1. All Vote Baumgartner for Congress (FEC C00870758) campaign finance data, contribution records, donor disclosures, and filing dates referenced in this article are derived from Federal Election Commission filings, including the Q1 2026 April Quarterly (FEC-1964333) and prior quarterly reports for the 2025–2026 cycle. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00870758/

2. PAC contributions to Vote Baumgartner for Congress, 2025–2026 cycle. Compiled from FEC Schedule A line 11C records. Full list of 118 PAC contributors with state and amount published at [URL].

3. All Carmela Conroy for Congress (FEC C00849794) campaign finance data referenced in this article are derived from Federal Election Commission filings, including the 2025–2026 cycle quarterlies (Q1 2026 FEC-1966219 and prior) and 2023–2024 cycle quarterlies (Q1 2024 FEC-1771310 and others). https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00849794/

4. “Rep. Baumgartner Announces Committee and Subcommittee Assignments,” official press release, baumgartner.house.gov. https://baumgartner.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-baumgartner-announces-committee-and-subcommittee-assignments

5. H.R. 5388, American Artificial Intelligence Leadership and Uniformity Act, 119th Congress. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5388/text. Sponsor announcement: https://baumgartner.house.gov/2025/09/19/baumgartner-introduces-bill-codify-trump-executive-order-preventing-patchwork/

6. GovFacts, “Big Tech Has Spent More than $1 Billion to Stop States From Regulating AI,” November 2025. https://govfacts.org/accountability-ethics/lobbying/big-tech-has-spent-more-than-1-billion-to-stop-states-from-regulating-ai/

7. “Back from weeklong trip to Israel, Baumgartner reflects on ‘misery’ of ongoing conflict and what it would take to end it,” Spokesman-Review, August 12, 2025. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2025/aug/12/back-from-weeklong-trip-to-israel-baumgartner-refl/

8. House Resolution 398, 119th Congress. Sponsor announcement: https://baumgartner.house.gov/media/press-releases/baumgartner-introduces-resolution-prevent-iran-acquiring-nuclear-weapons

9. “Baumgartner, Pfluger, Nunn Champion Resolution to End Iran’s Nuclear Threat,” official press release, baumgartner.house.gov. https://baumgartner.house.gov/media/press-releases/baumgartner-pfluger-nunn-champion-resolution-end-irans-nuclear-threat-and

10. House Resolution 166, 119th Congress: condemning the Iranian regime’s terrorism and supporting Iranian opposition. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-resolution/166

11. “Baumgartner, Moskowitz Bipartisan Bill to Sanction Hostage-Takers Clears Foreign Affairs,” official press release, baumgartner.house.gov. https://baumgartner.house.gov/media/press-releases/baumgartner-moskowitz-bipartisan-bill-sanction-hostage-takers-clears-foreign

12. American Israel Public Affairs Committee, “Policy: Countering Iran’s Aggression and Nuclear Weapons Quest,” accessed May 2026. https://www.aipac.org/policy-iran

13. Michael Baumgartner, “Applying Iraq’s Hardest Lessons to Iran,” National Review, March 6, 2026. https://www.nationalreview.com/2026/03/applying-iraqs-hardest-lessons-to-iran/

14. All Cathy McMorris Rodgers for Congress (FEC C00390476) 2021–2022 cycle data are derived from Federal Election Commission filings, including the April Quarterly 2021 (FEC-1511306), July Quarterly 2021 (FEC-1526360), October Quarterly 2021 (FEC-1543700), Year-End 2021 (FEC-1563329), April Quarterly 2022 (FEC-1584364), and Post-General 2022 (FEC-1667962). https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00390476/

15. Center for Responsive Politics, OpenSecrets, "Michael James Baumgartner — Individual Donors, 2025–2026 cycle," accessed May 2026. https://www.opensecrets.org/profiles/michael-james-baumgartner/us_congress/individual_donors?mpid=1175224