Recognized Endorsement Contributor (REC)
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| How we cover endorsements Recognized Endorsement Contributor (REC) Submit an endorsement |
| Endorsements in elections |
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| Presidential • U.S. Senate • U.S. House • State executive • Gubernatorial • Lieutenant gubernatorial • Attorney General • Secretary of State • State legislative • State judicial • Local elections • Mayoral • School boards |
| Endorsers by state |
Recognized Endorsement Contributors (RECs) are any figures or organizations that endorse candidates running for elected office. These endorsers — which range from unions, trade associations, and lobby groups to political parties, political action committees (PACs), social media groups, and civic community clubs — publicly express their support for candidates or campaigns. These endorsements provide voters with valuable information and, ultimately, contribute to an information environment that fosters a more civically engaged and informed electorate. Ballotpedia collects and displays all endorsements to give as many people as possible access to this valuable information. You can see how Ballotpedia does this here.
Have candidate endorsements to share? Send us an email at endorsements@ballotpedia.org to share your list and help voters in your community.
Why RECs matter
From what voters know about a REC, endorsements can reveal a candidate’s ideological leanings, alliances, and policy priorities. Endorsements are especially important at the local level, where there is often little candidate information available to voters. Also, most local elections are nonpartisan. In these races, candidates run without party labels, which means voters cannot rely on party affiliation to guide their vote. Whether or not party affiliation is listed, even one or two endorsements from organizations can provide voters a significantly clearer picture of the candidates they are choosing to represent them.
RECs play two roles when they contribute endorsements:
- They collect information on candidates through multiple avenues, such as questionnaires/surveys and interviews. Collecting this information helps RECs evaluate which candidates to endorse.
- They communicate their endorsements to voters via their websites and social media channels. Additionally, they may communicate endorsements through campaign advertisements, flyers, brochures, and mailers.
Ballotpedia gathers endorsements from these communication channels and provides them to our readers. You can see how Ballotpedia does this here.
Examples of RECs
Many different RECs issue endorsements. Among those are unions, trade associations, lobby groups, political parties, PACs, social media groups, and civic community clubs. While some RECs may take opposing positions in elections, they share the common goal of using endorsements to help candidates and campaigns that support their missions.
Endorsers by state
Click a state on the map below to explore our list of endorsers, including RECs, in that state.
Additional reading
The following articles by Ballotpedia's founder and CEO, Leslie Graves, include more information about RECs and Ballotpedia's mission to bring clarity to elections and deepen coverage of local politics.
- Sowing the digital seeds of local elections (November 14, 2025)
- The challenges of providing robust data, part 2 (October 24, 2025)
- Bringing it all together: Why robust information matters, part 1 (October 17, 2025)
- How endorsements can help provide voters with robust information (September 26, 2025)
- Defining what we mean by robust information (June 13, 2025)
