In California politics, state-level candidates and officeholders raised $304.0 million between Jan. 1, 2021, and Sept. 24, 2022. More than $80.6 million, or 27 percent, of all donations reported by candidate committees were raised by the 10 individuals at the top of the list.
Top 10 California candidates (1/1/2021 – 9/24/2022)
Here are the 10 California candidates and officeholders who have raised the most money so far in the 2022 election cycle, according to campaign finance reports submitted to the California Secretary of State:
| Rank | Candidate/Officeholder Name | Total Donations |
| 1 | Larry Elder | $17,034,480 |
| 2 | Gavin Newsom | $14,884,261 |
| 3 | John Cox | $12,183,088 |
| 4 | Rob Bonta | $9,752,268 |
| 5 | Yvonne Yiu | $6,029,602 |
| 6 | Kevin Faulconer | $4,925,217 |
| 7 | Phil Ting | $4,130,686 |
| 8 | Lanhee Chen | $4,054,653 |
| 9 | Nathan Hochman | $3,879,225 |
| 10 | Eleni Kounalakis | $3,718,110 |
The list of California candidates and officeholders includes anyone with a candidate PAC that filed campaign finance reports during this time period, and may include former candidates or current officeholders who are not running in this cycle. PACs not associated with a candidate are not included in the values above.
The data above are based on campaign finance reports that active California PACs submitted to the California Secretary of State. Political expenditures that are not controlled by candidates or their campaigns, known as satellite spending, are not included in candidate totals. Federal PACs are not required to report to state agencies.
Transparency USA publishes campaign finance data following major reporting deadlines. State or federal law may require filers to submit additional reports. Data from additional reports due in between the deadlines below are published along with the reports listed here.
| Report Name | Due Date |
| Semiannual | 1/31/2022 |
| 1st Pre-Election – Primary | 4/28/2022 |
| 2nd Pre-Election – Primary | 5/26/2022 |
| Semiannual | 8/1/2022 |
| 1st Pre-Election – General | 9/29/2022 |
| 2nd Pre- Election – General | 10/27/2022 |
| Semiannual | 1/31/2023 |
This article is a joint publication from Ballotpedia and Transparency USA, who are working together to provide campaign finance information for state-level elections. Learn more about our work here.
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