# FEC Candidate Search

> FEC Candidate Search is a paid API for AI agents from agent402.tools, paid per call via x402, $0.004/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Search US federal election candidates by name, party, office, state, and incumbency using live FEC data

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://agent402.tools/api/fec-candidates
- Price: $0.004/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/fec-candidate-search-40f0e9db
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_BG94IWV53h7KGvAhhEkxf

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-search-40f0e9db
```

Example prompt: Search the FEC for federal candidates with the last name 'Warren' and show me their office, party, state, and whether they're incumbents — give me up to 10 results.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need live, authoritative US federal election candidate data from the FEC — specifically to look up candidate names, identify which office they're running for, verify party affiliation, find FEC candidate IDs, or distinguish incumbents from challengers. Prefer this over general web search when you need structured, queryable candidate records rather than news articles or bios.

## Known failure modes

- No candidates found matching the query string — returns empty results
- Query parameter 'q' missing — returns 400 or validation error
- Limit out of range (not 1-20) — may be clamped or return error
- FEC upstream API unavailable — may return 500 or timeout
- Very common name returns max results without the specific candidate sought

## How this service works

Search US federal election candidates via the FEC: name, party, office (House/Senate/President), state, incumbent/challenger status, and FEC candidate ID. Live gov data. ?q=warren&limit=5

## Output

A list of matching federal election candidates (up to the specified limit), each including full name, party affiliation, office sought (House/Senate/President), state, incumbent or challenger status, and FEC candidate ID — sourced from live FEC government data.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "q"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "q": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Candidate name to search"
      },
      "limit": {
       "type": "number",
       "description": "Max results 1-20 (default 5)"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "query",
      "count",
      "candidates",
      "source"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "count": {
       "type": "integer"
      },
      "query": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "source": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "candidates": {
       "type": "array",
       "items": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
         "name": {
          "type": "string"
         },
         "party": {
          "type": "string"
         },
         "state": {
          "type": "string"
         },
         "office": {
          "type": "string"
         },
         "status": {
          "type": "string"
         },
         "candidateId": {
          "type": "string"
         }
        }
       }
      }
     }
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "count": 1,
  "query": "warren",
  "source": "api.open.fec.gov (public domain)",
  "candidates": [
   {
    "name": "WARREN, ELIZABETH",
    "party": "DEMOCRATIC PARTY",
    "state": "MA",
    "office": "Senate",
    "status": "Incumbent",
    "candidateId": "S2MA00170"
   }
  ]
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/fec-candidate-search-40f0e9db/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from agent402.tools](https://www.zero.xyz/host/agent402.tools/llms.txt)