CampaignRadar collects campaign emails, scores them using a hybrid rule-based and AI system, tracks campaign finance filings, monitors policy positions, and maintains election date calendars across all 50 states. Every score, grade, and data point is derived from primary sources and explained here.
Nothing is a black box. This page documents every methodology decision we have made.
CampaignRadar subscribes to campaign email lists across federal and state races using a purpose-built subscription system. Each candidate is assigned a unique inbound email address so every message can be attributed to exactly the right campaign.
We only subscribe to publicly available campaign email lists. We do not intercept or access any private communications. Every campaign we track made a conscious decision to send mass emails, and CampaignRadar receives them as any member of the public would.
Each email is evaluated across four dimensions weighted to reflect what matters most for voter-facing communication: whether the email informs, whether it is honest about who sent it, and whether it respects the reader.
Campaigns face real, legally mandated reporting deadlines. An email sent two days before a genuine filing deadline with urgent fundraising language is meaningfully different from the same email sent mid-month with no deadline in sight.
CampaignRadar cross-references the date each email was received against a database of real reporting deadlines and end-of-quarter dates. Urgency language is penalized on a sliding scale based on how close a legitimate deadline actually is.
Rule-based scoring is fast and consistent, but it can miss nuance. A campaign email that avoids every keyword on our manipulation list could still be subtly misleading. Every email also receives an AI analysis pass using Claude by Anthropic.
The AI evaluates each email with full context, understanding tone, intent, and purpose in ways that keyword detection cannot. It also generates the plain-language summary that appears on every candidate profile.
Beyond email scoring, CampaignRadar extracts policy positions and issue tags from two sources: campaign emails and campaign websites. Each source is analyzed separately, then combined into a weighted profile of what a candidate emphasizes across their public communications.
Issue tags are assigned using AI analysis of full email and website text. CampaignRadar tracks emphasis, not position. A candidate who mentions immigration in 80% of their emails will show a high immigration score — regardless of which side of the issue they're on.
A candidate's overall grade is the weighted average of all individual email scores on record. Each new email updates the grade immediately — there is no waiting period and no smoothing. A campaign that starts strong and then pivots to fear-based fundraising will see their grade fall in real time. A campaign that improves their communication quality over time will see it rise. The grade reflects the full body of work, not any single email.
Federal campaign finance data is sourced directly from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) using publicly available bulk data files — no API, no third-party aggregators. State-level finance data is sourced from individual state ethics and campaign finance commissions, downloaded and processed on our own infrastructure.
Finance data is refreshed automatically on every reporting deadline — keeping cash on hand, burn rate, and donor breakdown current throughout the cycle.
CampaignRadar tracks the full election lifecycle — not just when elections are scheduled, but what happens when they occur. Primary results determine which candidates advance, reshape the competitive field, and change who is relevant in the general. We track and display both the calendar and the outcomes.
Election dates are maintained for all 50 states, separately for federal and state races, sourced from the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) and verified against state secretary of state publications. Results are sourced from official state returns as they become available.
CampaignRadar imports candidate records daily from federal and state filings. For federal races, candidates with a 2026 election year designation in the FEC master file are imported — filtering out incumbents maintaining committees between cycles and former candidates who never formally withdrew.
Each day, status codes are checked for every tracked candidate. If a candidate's status indicates they are no longer seeking election in the current cycle, they are flagged as a dropout. Flagged candidates remain in the database for historical reference but are removed from active race views.
CampaignRadar grades how candidates communicate, not what they believe. We do not score, evaluate, or express any opinion on a candidate's policy positions, political ideology, party affiliation, or fitness for office.
A progressive Democrat and a conservative Republican can both earn an A. The scoring system is blind to politics. It only evaluates communication quality and financial transparency.
We do not score based on how often candidates send emails, how much they raise, or whether their campaigns are successful. A candidate who sends one excellent email scores better than one who sends twenty manipulative ones.
If you believe a score is in error, contact us. We review disputes and correct genuine errors in our data.
Browse candidate profiles across federal and state races in all 50 states. Grades, email histories, finance data, issue tags, and election dates on every profile.