Payday lending industry donated $118K in 2016 campaign cycle

Payday lenders and their professional associations donated more than $118,000 to candidates and PACs in 2015 and 2016. Most of that money – $92,150 – went to Republican interests, with $41,700 to Republican House candidates. That follows the trend of House Republicans outraising and outspending their Democratic counterparts in the 2016 election cycle, particularly when it came to business interests. Despite such campaign cash dominance, Republicans lost control of the House. But the total is less than the $140,000 the industry spent in the 2014 election cycle, when statewide offices such as governor and attorney general were at stake.