For an industry that moves 70% of the nation’s freight tonnage, trucking doesn’t carry much weight when it comes to national campaign contributions. In fact, transportation groups don’t even make the Top 10 list of business sectors that have given the most in this election cycle—and trucking is well down the list of transportation interests, according to Federal Election Commission data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group.
Indeed, the trucking industry ranks 66 in total campaign giving on Open Secrets.org, the Center’s online database, as compared to more than 80 other industries.
So how does the trucking industry stack up, otherwise, when it comes to political giving—and where the money goes? Let’s have a look.
(For the really curious, in addition to presenting campaign contributions by sector, industries and organizations, OpenSecrets.org also cross-tabulates by individual, both contributors and recipients, with data arranged historically in two-year election cycle. Issue specific staff analysis and direct links to FEC data files are also provided. The amounts used for this report include FEC data released through Oct. 21 for the 2015-2016 federal campaign reporting cycle.)
