根据响应式政治中心的数据，截至10月23日，在2019 - 2020年选举周期中，建筑公司和贸易组织已向联邦候选人，聚会和委员会捐赠了1.441亿美元。这已经超过了该行业在2015 - 16年周期中花费了1.377亿美元的最后一票，这是最后一个包括总统竞选的人。

Dissatisfaction with politics drove down numbers of some groups, while others increased contributions because of the help offered by Congress during the pandemic, they say.

Associated Builders and Contractors’ 2020 fundraising for federal candidates took off with a strong start, bringing in more than $500,000 in donations for its political action committee in the first three months of the year. ABC was on a pace to raise a record amount for its PAC, says Melanie Pfeiffenberger, vice president for political affairs. But then the pandemic arose. “The world shut down on March 15,” she says.

结果，美国广播公司（ABC）和其他建筑协会（ABC）和其他建筑协会（ABC）宣布了为期数月的招标，取消了带来捐款的面对面活动，而是举行了虚拟会议。几个小组的官员说，部分原因是由于冠状病毒爆发，他们的捐款远低于2016 - 2016年周期中达到的水平。

建造unions, on the other hand, already have seen their federal campaign spending vault well above the levels of four years ago. Building trades' expenditures totaled $54.2 million through Oct. 16, the Center for Responsive Politics reports. With weeks yet to go before final 2020 numbers are recorded, that already is 29% above the $42.1 million that construction unions spent in the last full cycle.

但是工会官员说，大流行对今年的政治活动也产生了影响。他们报告说，例如，他们广泛的选民 - 欧特拉仪工作已从面对面的集会转移到更多的电话和数字活动。

Top officials at several engineering and construction organizations report that donations have bounced back in recent weeks. Some are optimistic that when the final campaign-finance tallies are in at the end of the year, they may exceed those achieved in the 2016 cycle.

国家电气承包商协会政府和公共事务副主席马可·吉亚伯迪诺（Marco Giamberardino）说：“显然，筹集资金的挑战是一个挑战。”NECA进行了筹款停顿，该停顿从3月下旬至八月进行。他说：“今年我们不受对成员的尊重。”但是，随着持有的升空，Giamberardino表示，到选举日，PAC支付预计将“害羞” 110万美元。这将比2016年的数字略有增长。

立法和政治事务副总裁克里斯汀·斯威格里根（Kristen Swearingen）说，截至10月22日，美国广播公司（ABC）已筹集了约136万美元，从2016年周期目前的情况下筹集了约279,000美元。她承认，在本选举日，ABC与2016年的捐款无法匹配。

"But we're not too far off," Swearingen says. "We were doing a lot of thinking outside the box and a lot of virtual fundraising."

相关的美国总承包商的铁deral campaign expenditures were about $877,500 as of Oct. 21, down about $50,000 from the last presidential election cycle, says David Ashinoff, director of political affairs. He says AGC will come "pretty close" to the 2015-2016 number when final totals are in.

但他表示,另一个因素在较低的水平of donations is the present political environment. “A lot of folks are dissatisfied with Washington, D.C.," Asinoff says. "They don’t see either party being the solution, [but] at times, being the problem.”

At the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association, Michele Stanley, vice president for government and regulatory affairs, says by the end of the 2019-20 cycle, "We will have raised significantly more than we did in the 2016 cycle.” As of Sept. 30, the group had raised slightly more than $1.3 million this cycle for its political action committee, ROCKPAC, according to Federal Election Commission data.

Stanley said via email, "Our receipts for 2020 are down a little from 2019 due to the pandemic, because we were not able to have our in-person fundraiser where people are generally more motivated to contribute..."

Steve Hall, senior vice president for advocacy at the American Council of Engineering Cos., expects that its final fundraising total will exceed the 2016 level. “In fact, we’re almost there already," with nearly $1.8 million, he said in an Oct. 22 interview.

总裁兼首席执行官琳达·鲍尔·达尔（Linda Bauer Darr）表示，与其他工程和建筑组织不同，ACEC并没有考虑这样做，尽管它考虑了这样做。

她说，原因可以追溯到国会和特朗普政府谈判的立法今年的财务帮助的重要性。

Darr说，ACEC成员“保持活跃，有些由于大流行而变得更加活跃。”她补充说：“这种大流行很早就打入了我们，他们处于生存模式。”成员意识到，新的联邦援助计划，尤其是薪水保护计划原谅贷款，将“在一切都不确定的时候为其运营提供必要的稳定。”

达尔说：“当涉及到生存时，我认为人们理解有点像小马并积极活跃的必要性。”

Among the building trades unions, the carpenters’ union has been, by far, the most generous political donor in recent years. This election cycle is no exception. The carpenters continue to rank first among the building trades in campaign spending, and this cycle's total has more than doubled from four years earlier, to $28 million, including $25.8 million in soft money.

联盟的政治总监凯尔·马卡里奥斯（Kyle Makarios）的全名是木匠联合兄弟会和美国木匠的联合兄弟会，他说联盟继续向共和党和民主党候选人捐款，但他不会就其战略的细节发表评论。

Although the industry is weathering a pandemic, Makarios says contributions from the union’s members haven’t suffered. “We have a strong base of continually contributing members and haven’t seen a significant drop,” he says, noting that the vast majority of its donors make contributions through regular automatic withdrawals. “We’re not out there pounding jobsites for donations,” Makarios says.

大流行对工会的选举活动产生了影响，从传统的人与人联系到虚拟联系人，包括数字会议，电话和文本银行。“我们的志愿活动确实发生了变化，”马卡里奥斯说。“集会和面对面的政治志愿者活动较少，成员将在这里进行。”

The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), which ranks second among construction unions in campaign expenditures, also has altered its strategy to adapt to uring COVID-19 constraints. “The pandemic has changed some of the ways we are mobilizing," says Terry O'Sullivan, LIUNA general president. "But we have ramped up our mail and digital outreach in addition to hosting virtual meetings and doing job site visits,”

Liuna已认可前副总统乔·拜登（Joe Biden）担任总统。奥沙利文说：“成员们正在积极地工作，与其他成员谈论在各个层面上投票支持乔和对工人友好的候选人。”

国际运营工程师联盟的传播总监杰伊·莱德勒（Jay Lederer）表示，大流行的命中和强迫人工努力被搁置时，到数字化的迁移已经在进行中。他说：“随着会员人口的年轻偏向年轻人，您必须到达他们所处的位置。”

总体而言，建筑公司和协会倾向于赞成共和党人。在当前周期中，他们的捐款中有65％用于共和党，而民主党人35％。

But some associations lean more heavily Republican. ABC, for example directed 99.8% of its contributions to Republicans and AGC sent 90.5% of its dollars to the GOP.

其他人之间的差距更狭窄。例如，对共和党人的分裂为61.7％，民主党人为38.3％。根据响应式政治数据中心的数据，这与2015-16周期中的75.1％/24.9 $％分配。

Giamberardino说，民主党人份额增加的原因之一是自2018年以来的众议院民主党人的增加。“随着镇上更多的民主党人，我们已经看到了我们能够与[并且拥有]合作的民主党候选人的提升有一段时间的好机会。”

建筑工会倾向于支持民主党人。这个周期，86％的建筑物交易捐给民主党人，共和党14％。

这些百分比因工会而异。木匠工会将其78.8％的钱投入了民主党人。对于劳工工会而言，民主党人的份额为83％，对于瓦工工会来说，份额为99.8％。

Story updated on 10/30/20 with more recent campaign spending totals.