Coordinated communications periods: national party nominating conventions (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 national party presidential nominating conventions.
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).
Coordinated communications periods for national party nominating conventions
Party | Convention dates | CC period (120-days prior through date of general election) | Democrat | 08/17/2020 - 08/20/20201 | 04/22/2020 - 11/03/2020 | Republican | 08/24/2020 - 08/27/2020 | 04/29/2020 - 11/03/2020 |
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