Michigan Campaign Finance: Limits, Disclosures, and AI Rules

Michigan campaign finance is governed by the Michigan Campaign Finance Act of 1976, which sets who has to register as a political committee, how much donors can give to candidates, what committees must disclose and when, and what happens when those rules are broken. The Secretary of State’s Bureau of Elections administers the law, and enforcement is shared with the Attorney General. The same framework covers a governor’s race and a township trustee’s race, though the dollar figures and filing offices change with the office.

Who Has to Register as a Committee

Any person or group that receives contributions or makes expenditures to influence a candidate’s nomination or election, to support or defeat a ballot question, to make independent expenditures, or to help a political party qualify for the ballot falls under the Act.¹

A person becomes a candidate under state law by filing a nominating petition or filing fee, receiving a contribution, making an expenditure, or being nominated by party caucus or convention. Once that happens, the candidate must form a committee within 10 calendar days and register it by filing a Statement of Organization within another 10.² Late registration costs $10 per business day, capped at $300.³

For non-candidate committees, the trigger is $500. Any group that receives or spends $500 or more in a calendar year for political purposes has to register within 10 days.⁴ Committees that expect to raise and spend $1,000 or less in the cycle can request a reporting waiver, which drops the detailed campaign statement requirement but keeps the late-contribution reporting obligation.⁵

State-level candidates file with the Secretary of State. Local candidates file with their county clerk. For a school board or other multi-county district, filings go to the clerk of the county with the largest number of eligible voters.⁶

One boundary matters up front: federal candidates for Congress and the presidency follow federal law and are exempt from state filing. Precinct delegates and school board candidates in districts with 2,400 or fewer pupils are largely exempt too, unless they cross the $1,000 threshold.¹

How Much a Donor Can Give

Michigan sets per-election-cycle contribution limits that scale with the office. The Secretary of State adjusts the amounts every four years using the consumer price index. Current base limits from an individual donor are:⁷

$6,800 for statewide office (other than legislator) or for local office in a district larger than 250,000 people.
$2,000 for state senator or local office in a district of 85,000 to 250,000.
$1,000 for state representative or local office of 85,000 or fewer.

Independent committees that qualify as such under the Act can give up to 10 times the individual limit. State central party committees can give up to 20 times the individual limit for statewide offices outside the legislature, and 10 times for legislative and local races.⁷ Contributions from a candidate’s immediate family aren’t capped.

Political committees, independent expenditure committees, party committees, and ballot question committees can generally accept unlimited amounts from legal sources. The one carve-out is legislative caucus committees, which are capped at $48,875 per donor per calendar year.⁸

Cash contributions are capped at $20. Anything larger has to come by check, money order, or credit card. Once a donor’s cumulative giving to a committee crosses $100, the committee must record and report the donor’s name, occupation, employer, and business address.¹

Corporate and Union Money

Corporations, labor organizations, and Indian tribes may not contribute directly to candidate committees from their treasury funds.⁷ They can instead set up separate segregated funds, the entities commonly called PACs, and solicit voluntary contributions from employees, stockholders, or members. Those PACs can then give within the standard limits, and the underlying corporations and unions can also contribute to independent expenditure committees and ballot question committees.⁴

Michigan’s statutory ban on direct corporate and union contributions predates the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, which held that the government cannot restrict independent political expenditures by corporations and unions. The state’s ban remains on the books, though it has been described as potentially unenforceable as applied to independent expenditures.⁹

Filing Deadlines and What Happens If You Miss Them

Committees that cross the $1,000 threshold file regular campaign statements with the Secretary of State or the appropriate county clerk. The core election-year rhythm is straightforward:¹⁰

A pre-election statement is due no later than 11 days before the election, covering activity through the 16th day before.
A post-election statement is due no later than 30 days after the election, covering activity through the 20th day after.

In non-election years, candidate committees file on July 25 and October 25. PACs and independent committees file quarterly in April, July, and October. Caucus committees add a January 31 filing.¹⁰

Two accelerated rules kick in near an election. In the 14 days before a primary or general election, caucus committees must file daily reports for any single contribution or expenditure over $1,000. Late contributions received after the pre-election report’s closing date have to be reported within 48 hours, and independent expenditures made within 45 days of a special election also require a 48-hour report.¹¹

Missed deadlines carry escalating fees. Small committees, those that raised $10,000 or less in the prior two years, pay $25 per business day up to $500. Larger committees pay more, up to $1,000. Failure to file for more than 30 days is a misdemeanor. A committee that fails to file for two consecutive years while sitting on a balance of $20,000 or more can face felony charges and seizure of its funds.¹⁰

Beyond the late-filing schedule, penalties for other violations vary. Many are misdemeanors carrying up to 90 days in jail and fines up to $1,000 for individuals or $10,000 for organizations.⁷ Using public resources for campaigning is a separate offense, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine for individuals, or fines of up to $20,000 or the value of the improper expenditure, whichever is greater, for organizations.¹²

Ballot Question Committees

Ballot question committees follow a different logic than candidate committees. There are no contribution limits: a ballot question committee can receive unlimited amounts from any legal source. Registration is still required within 10 days of hitting the $500 threshold. Reporting follows the standard pre-election and post-election schedule, with an extra post-petition report due 35 days after a state-level petition proposal is filed.¹³

A ballot question committee cannot spend money to support or oppose a candidate, or to support any committee that does. It has to stay single-purpose.

Independent Expenditures and Dark Money

Independent expenditures are outlays made on behalf of a candidate or ballot question without any coordination with the campaign. Because they aren’t treated as contributions, they can be unlimited.⁴ Non-PAC entities that spend more than $100 on independent expenditures have to file a report within 10 days.

The disclosure gap is on the donor side. Political advocacy nonprofits organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code aren’t required to publicly disclose their donors, and money frequently moves from those groups into ballot committees and independent expenditure efforts. Certain political party accounts are also exempt from some reporting requirements and have been used to fund election-season advertising.¹⁴

Issue advocacy is another gap. Michigan follows the Buckley v. Valeo standard, so only communications using explicit “magic words” of advocacy for or against a candidate trigger disclosure. Ads that reference a candidate without expressly calling for their election or defeat can avoid the reporting rules that apply to express advocacy.

AI Disclosures in Political Ads

In 2023, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation adding disclosure rules for political ads that use artificial intelligence. The law, at MCL 169.259, took effect on February 13, 2024.¹⁵

Any paid political ad about a candidate or ballot question that uses AI-generated image, audio, or video must carry a clear disclaimer. In print, the disclaimer must be in letters at least as large as the majority of the ad’s text. Audio disclaimers must run at least three seconds at the start or end. Video needs a text disclaimer visible for at least four seconds plus a spoken disclaimer of at least three seconds.¹⁵ Fines start at $250 for a first offense and go to $1,000 for later ones, with each ad counted as a separate violation.

The law is stricter for “materially deceptive media,” meaning AI-produced content that falsely shows someone doing or saying something they didn’t. Distributing that kind of content within 90 days of an election with intent to deceive voters is a criminal offense, punishable by fines up to $1,000 and up to five years in prison.¹⁶ Bona fide news organizations, satire and parody, and distribution platforms with written compliance policies are exempt.¹⁵

Public Financing for Governor’s Races

Michigan has offered public financing for gubernatorial candidates since 1976 through the State Campaign Fund, supported by a voluntary $3 checkoff on the state income tax return.¹⁷

Participating candidates agree to cap total campaign spending at $2 million per election and to limit personal and family contributions to $50,000 for the cycle. The candidate first has to raise at least $75,000 in qualifying contributions of $100 or less from Michigan residents. The state then matches those qualifying contributions two-to-one. Major-party primary winners who participate can also receive a flat general election grant of $1,125,000.¹⁸

Candidates who accept public funds face a mandatory post-election audit and must return any unspent public money within 60 days after the election. The $2 million spending cap is suspended if a non-participating opponent puts at least $340,000 of personal or family money into their own campaign.¹⁸

How to Look Up Contributions and Spending

Michigan’s campaign finance filings are public. They live on the Michigan Transparency Network (MiTN), a cloud platform launched in 2024 and run by the Bureau of Elections. No account is needed to search.¹⁹ The system supports:

Committee lookups, which show filings, donations, expenditures, and regulatory correspondence for any registered committee.
Contribution searches that filter by donor type, date, and other criteria.
Expenditure searches, including spending for or against specific candidates or ballot questions.
Bulk annual transaction downloads for spreadsheet analysis.

The Michigan Campaign Finance Network, a Lansing-based nonprofit watchdog, tracks large contributions and expenditures, publishes daily alerts, and provides guides for navigating state and federal disclosure databases.²⁰

Reforms in Motion

A ballot initiative called Michiganders for Money Out of Politics submitted more than 562,000 signatures in May 2026 to reach the November 2026 ballot. The proposal would ban campaign contributions from public utility companies and large government contractors, expand donor disclosure requirements for outside groups spending on Michigan campaigns, and redefine “electioneering” to include any mention of a candidate or ballot initiative within 100 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary.²¹ The initiative is backed by Voters Not Politicians and environmental activist Sean McBrearty, and opposed by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and utility companies including DTE and Consumers Energy.²²

House Bill 4642, which the Michigan House unanimously passed in October 2025, would give the Attorney General explicit authority to investigate and resolve campaign finance violations by the Secretary of State, closing a referral gap identified during a 2025 enforcement matter. As of mid-2026, the bill was still in the Senate Committee on Elections and Ethics with no further action recorded.²³

1
Michigan Secretary of State. Michigan Campaign Finance Candidate Committee Manual
2
Allegan County. Campaign Finance How-To
3
Michigan Legislature. MCL 169.224
4
Michigan Secretary of State. Independent, Political, and Independent Expenditure Committee Manual
5
Kalamazoo County. Campaign Finance
6
Michigan Secretary of State. School Board Candidate Filing Requirements
7
Michigan Legislature. MCL 169.252
8
Michigan Secretary of State. Contribution Limits
9
National Conference of State Legislatures. Citizens United and the States
10
Michigan Legislature. MCL 169.233
11
Michigan Secretary of State. Campaign Finance Filing Dates
12
Michigan Legislature. MCL 169.257
13
Michigan Secretary of State. Ballot Question Committee Manual
14
Bridge Michigan. More Dark Money Flows to Michigan Ballot Groups
15
Michigan Legislature. MCL 169.259
16
Detroit Free Press. Michigan Law on AI Disclosure in Campaign Ads
17
Michigan Legislature. MCL 169.261
18
Michigan Secretary of State. Public Funding for Gubernatorial Candidates
19
Michigan Secretary of State. MiTN Information
20
Michigan Campaign Finance Network. DIY Research Guide
21
Michigan Public Radio. Petition Drive to Get Money Out of Politics Submits Signatures for Ballot Campaign
22
Michigan Advance. Over 562K Signatures Filed for Proposal to Ban Campaign Spending by Utilities, State Contractors
23
Michigan Legislature. House Bill 4642