Coordinated communications periods: presidential primaries (2020)

When a person pays for a communication that is coordinated with a candidate, a candidate’s authorized committee, or their agents, or a political party committee or its agents, the communication is considered an in-kind contribution to that candidate or party committee and is subject to the limits, prohibitions and reporting requirements of the federal campaign finance law. FEC regulations establish a three-prong test to determine whether a communication is coordinated. All three prongs of the test—payment, content and conduct—must be met for a communication to be deemed coordinated and thus an in-kind contribution.

One provision identifies certain pre-election time frames during which a public communication that references a candidate will satisfy the content prong of the coordination test.

The following chart provides a breakdown of the 120-day coordinated communications (CC) periods for the 2020 presidential primaries.

NOTE: For communications that refer to both a party and a clearly identified federal candidate please consult the regulations at 11 CFR 109.21(c)(4)(i)-(iv).

Related pages:

• CC periods - main page (2020)
• CC periods for congressional primaries (2020)
• CC periods for national party nominating conventions (2020)
• CC periods for congressional general election (2020)
• CC periods for special elections (2020-21)