Kirsten Gillibrand
Democrat · NY· In the Senate since 2009 (17 yrs)
Mostly independent of concentrated money.
Why this grade
Every score is built from money facts you can check. Here's what drove it.
16.5% of their money comes from small donors; 10.5% comes from PACs.
$1,453,232 in PAC money flows through their leadership PAC (EMPIRE PAC, OFF THE SIDELINES PAC).
Where the money comes from
$1.2MCareer donations from the seven industries that most often buy influence, and the biggest names in each.
Morgan Stanley $167K · Blackstone $163K · Goldman Sachs $144K · JPMorgan $57K · BlackRock $25K
Pfizer $143K · Johnson & Johnson $42K · Merck $13K · Eli Lilly $4K · PhRMA $1K
Google $97K · Apple $44K · Microsoft $27K · Oracle $22K · Amazon $3K
Comcast $43K · Verizon $31K · AT&T $21K · Charter $6K · T-Mobile $220
Natl Assn of Realtors $44K · CBRE $550
Lockheed Martin $6K · Raytheon $5K · General Dynamics $3K · Northrop Grumman $3K · Boeing $185
Chevron $1K
Source: FEC career receipts. It's all legal. That's the point.
The money votes
On the Senate votes where concentrated money was on the line, here's which way they went. Sided with the money on 1 of 22.
H.R. 1 · 2025. Its largest benefits flow to corporations and top earners. A yes vote sided with the donor class.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
H.J.Res. 88 · 2025. Revoked California's EV-standards waiver. A yes vote sided with oil and legacy-auto interests against the EV transition.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
S.J.Res. 18 · 2025. Killed the CFPB cap on overdraft fees at the biggest banks. A yes vote sided with their fee income.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
S.J.Res. 28 · 2025. Killed CFPB supervision of big-tech payment apps (Apple/Google/PayPal-style). A yes vote sided with those firms.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
H.J.Res. 35 · 2025. Killed the EPA fee on oil-and-gas methane leaks. A yes vote sided with the fossil-fuel industry that would have paid it.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
H.J.Res. 109 · 2024. Killed the SEC rule making banks hold capital against customer crypto. A yes vote sided with crypto firms and banks.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
S.J.Res. 32 · 2023. Killed the CFPB rule making banks report small-business lending data (used to spot bias). A yes vote sided with the banks.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
H.J.Res. 30 · 2023. Killed the rule letting retirement plans weigh climate risk. A yes vote sided with fossil-fuel and asset-management interests.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
H.R. 5376 · 2022. Let Medicare negotiate drug prices for the first time. A no vote sided with the pharmaceutical industry.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
S. 2747 · 2021. Aimed to curb big money and tighten disclosure. Blocking it protected dark-money spending.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
S. 2093 · 2021. Carried donor-disclosure and anti-big-money rules. Blocking it sided with undisclosed money.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
S.J.Res. 52 · 2018. Reversed the FCC's repeal to restore net neutrality. A no vote sided with the broadband carriers.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
S. 2155 · 2018. Exempted midsize banks from Dodd-Frank oversight. A yes vote sided with the banking industry.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
H.R. 1 · 2017. Its biggest cuts went to corporations and top earners. A yes vote sided with the donor class.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
H.J.Res. 111 · 2017. Killed the rule letting customers sue banks in class actions. A yes vote restored forced arbitration.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
S.J.Res. 34 · 2017. Let internet providers sell your browsing history. A yes vote sided with the telecom carriers.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
H.J.Res. 41 · 2017. Killed the rule making oil and mining firms disclose payments to governments. A yes vote backed industry secrecy.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
S.Amdt. 178 · 2017. Would let Americans buy cheaper drugs from Canada. A no vote protected U.S. pharma pricing.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
S. 1 · 2015. Forced approval of the oil pipeline backed by the fossil-fuel industry, bypassing review.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
S.J.Res. 19 · 2014. A constitutional amendment to let Congress regulate campaign money. A no vote sided with unlimited spending.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
S. 3369 · 2012. Second attempt to unmask Super PAC and corporate donors. A no vote blocked the disclosure rule.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
S. 3628 · 2010. Would have forced disclosure of dark-money donors. A no vote protected anonymous corporate spending.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
H.R. 4173 · 2010. Wall Street fought Dodd-Frank. A no vote sided with the banks against the new rules and the CFPB.
See who voted Yea & Nay →
Source: Senate roll-call records. “With the money” means the vote favored the industry whose cash was at stake. It's not a judgment of right or wrong.
How to read the grade
- AFunded by you, not by concentrated money
- BMostly independent of concentrated money
- CA mix — some independence, some big money
- DLeans on concentrated money
- FHeavily reliant on concentrated money
We grade money behavior, not party. Both parties run the full range. We show the averages in the open: the typical Democrat scores 68, the typical Republican 55. Source: FEC receipts (small-donor vs PAC) and leadership-PAC filings. Nothing here alleges a crime. The point is that it's all legal.