Filing A Campaign Finance Report
Filers who run for and/or hold statewide offices and multi-county offices that may include Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller, Railroad Commissioner, Land Commissioner, Agriculture Commissioner, State Chair of political party, Texas Senate, Texas House of Representatives, Multi-county District Attorney, State Board of Education, Supreme Court Justice, Court of Appeals Justice, Court of Criminal Appeals Judge, and district judges must file with the Texas Ethics Commission. You are a filer type COH, JCOH or SCCOH.
If you don't know if you have a Filer ID, see Filer ID below.
If you can't login to your account because you forgot your password, you can click Forgot Password? at the login screen to reset your password. For more information, see Forgot Password below.
If you already have a Filer ID and will be filing electronically, use the LOGIN below to access your account. If you are not sure if you file electronically, see Who Has to File Electronically? below.
If you qualify to file paper reports, remember EACH REPORT must be accompanied by the proper exemption affidavit. Speaker reports can only be filed electronically.
If you are a new filer and are unsure whether you file with TEC or a local filing authority, see "Filing as TEC or Local Filer?". All TEC filers will be assigned an 8 digit Filer ID number, sometimes called an account number, like 00049300. The only exception to this rule are Governor For A Day and Speaker Day Reunion filers which do not have filer id's and file on paper only.
If you are a TEC filer and do not have a filer id, you will most likely need to file a Treasurer Appointment form in order to be assigned a number. Exception filers that do not file a TA in order to be assigned a filer id:
- DCE filers that are organized as a PAC commonly refered to as Super PAC will need to file a Statement to Act as Direct Campaign Expenditure Only Committee affidavit.
- LEG filers will need to send a letter to the commission indicating that they are being created. See the Guidelines for Forming Legislative Caucus.
- SPK filers will need to send a Declaration of Speaker Candidacy to the commission even though they will use the same filer id as they use for their candidate/officeholder account.
- Lobbyists will need to file Filer ID Request/Name Change form.
- Appointees will need to have a letter sent by their appointer (usually the governor or an executive head).
If you are a new TEC filer and do not qualify to file on paper, you must also submit a Form SECURITY to gain access to the Commission’s electronic filing application.
The filing application can be started by using a personal computer or laptop, a Mac desktop computer or MacBook, or a Tablet to bring up a browser window. Acceptable browsers and their minimal version level are:
- Chrome 4
- Firefox 15
- Opera 12.1
- Safari 4
- Internet Explorer 9 (IE is no longer supported by Microsoft and is not recommended)
Due to a change in the law, effective January 20th, 2024, the Texas Ethics Commission changed the Expenditures Import files. All Schedule F4 expenditures need to include the name of the financial institution that issued the credit card that was used for the expenditure transaction along with the dates, if any, during the reporting period on which the credit card company was repaid.
- Campaign Finance Import Guide/Instructions
- Contributions Template
- Expenditures Template
- Expenditures Template (with child records)
- CSV Import File Format Verifier Application
- Video: How to Import Contributions and Expenditures
Candidate/Officeholder Types
Publications/Guides/FAQs
- What You Need to Know (formatted as an 8 1/2 x 11 document PDF)
- Rules for Posting Campaign Signs: Information from TxDOT on the rules for posting campaign signs