# FEC Candidate Lookup

> FEC Candidate Lookup is a paid API for AI agents from x402.forgemesh.io, paid per call via x402, $0.005/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-10).

Search US federal election records by candidate name and retrieve matching candidates with IDs, party, office, state, district, active years, and principal campaign committees.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://x402.forgemesh.io/fec-candidate-lookup?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.005/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-10
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/fec-candidate-lookup-b03a9bb9
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_TRbzG-hj2zii4EFqj_UUE

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability fec-candidate-lookup-b03a9bb9 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Look up 'Warnock' in the FEC candidate records and give me his candidate ID, party, office, state, and principal campaign committee.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint as the first resolver step whenever you need FEC candidate data by name — it converts a human-readable politician name into structured identifiers (candidate_id, committee_id) that can be used to query campaign finance totals, lobbying records, or trade disclosures. Prefer this over direct finance queries when you only have a name and need to establish identity first.

## Known failure modes

- Candidate name shorter than 3 characters returns a validation error
- Name typos or alternate spellings return zero matches
- Common names (e.g. 'Smith') may return many partial matches requiring further filtering
- Candidates who ran before digital FEC records may not appear
- Response may include multiple candidates with similar names requiring disambiguation by state or office

## How this service works

US federal candidate lookup: search official election records by name and get matching candidates with their unique candidate ids, party, office sought, state, district, active-through year, and principal campaign committees. The cheap resolver step before pulling finance totals or joining candidates to trades and lobbying records.

## Output

A JSON object containing the original query, number of matches found and returned, and an array of candidate objects each with: full name, party, state, office sought, district (if applicable), unique FEC candidate_id, active_through year, and a list of principal committees with committee name and committee_id. Attribution to the Federal Election Commission is included.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "candidate": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "candidate name, min 3 chars (required)"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "query": {
   "candidate": "ossoff"
  },
  "matched": 2,
  "returned": 2,
  "candidates": [
   {
    "name": "OSSOFF, T. JONATHAN",
    "party": "DEMOCRATIC PARTY",
    "state": "GA",
    "office": "Senate",
    "district": null,
    "candidate_id": "S8GA00180",
    "active_through": 2026,
    "principal_committees": [
     {
      "name": "JON OSSOFF FOR SENATE",
      "committee_id": "C00642406"
     }
    ]
   }
  ],
  "attribution": "Federal Election Commission (public domain)"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/fec-candidate-lookup-b03a9bb9/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from x402.forgemesh.io](https://www.zero.xyz/host/x402.forgemesh.io/llms.txt)