The Most Concentrated Industry in America
If lobbying were an industry — and at $15.2 billion over eight years, it is — it would be the most geographically concentrated industry in the United States. Not Hollywood for movies. Not Silicon Valley for tech. Not Wall Street for finance. K Street for lobbying.
Our geographic analysis of every lobbying filing in the database reveals a stunning concentration. Of the $15.2 billion in total disclosed lobbying income tracked by OpenLobby since 2018, a staggering $18.4 billion is attributed to organizations headquartered in Washington DC (the total exceeds $15.2B because geographic data includes firm-side income allocations and multi-year accumulation across all parties to each filing).
Lobbying Spending Per Capita by State (Top 10)
Source: OpenLobby analysis of LDA filings matched to state HQs, 2018–2025. DC's bar is truncated for readability.
The chart barely works because DC is so far ahead. At $27,105 per capita, DC's lobbying intensity dwarfs every state. Virginia — DC's neighbor and home to many defense contractors and lobbying firm satellite offices — comes in at $305 per capita. Maryland, on DC's other border, is at $110. Massachusetts, home to biotech and education lobbying, is at $108.
California, the largest state by population and by total lobbying spending outside DC ($2.64 billion), manages only $68 per capita. Texas: $44. Florida: $30. The average across all states is roughly $304 per capita if you include DC, and only about $45 if you exclude it.
Why DC Dominates
The concentration isn't surprising, but its magnitude is. Three factors explain DC's dominance:
1. Proximity Is Everything
Lobbying is a relationship business. You need to be close to the people you're lobbying — close enough to take a meeting on short notice, close enough to attend a fundraiser, close enough to bump into a senator at a restaurant. The 6,659 unique clients headquartered in DC (compared to 4,744 in California and 2,496 in New York) reflect this gravitational pull.
Trade associations — the American Hospital Association, the National Association of Realtors, PhRMA, the Business Roundtable — locate in DC specifically to be near the policymakers they exist to influence. The US Chamber of Commerce, our #1 spender at $591.9 million, is literally across the street from the White House.
2. The Beltway Ecosystem
Virginia's second-place finish ($2.65 billion total, $305/capita) isn't because Virginia companies are unusually regulated. It's because Northern Virginia is functionally part of Washington. Defense contractors (Northrop Grumman in Falls Church, General Dynamics in Reston), government IT firms, and lobbying firm branch offices all cluster in the Virginia suburbs.
Virginia's top lobbying issue is Budget/Appropriations (11,187 filings), followed by Defense (8,912) and Healthcare (7,600). That's the profile of a state whose economy depends on federal spending — and whose companies lobby to keep it flowing.
Maryland ($681 million total, $110/capita) completes the Beltway trifecta. Together, DC, Virginia, and Maryland account for over $21.7 billion in lobbying — more than the rest of the country combined.
3. Industry Composition
DC's top lobbying issues tell the story of what the federal government does — and what lobbyists try to shape. The top five issues lobbied in DC:
- Taxation — 35,886 filings
- Budget/Appropriations — 33,702 filings
- Healthcare — 27,464 filings
- Trade — 18,846 filings
- Medicare/Medicaid — 14,696 filings
These are the issues where the federal government has the most power to redistribute wealth — and therefore the issues where lobbying has the highest return.
The Big States
Total Lobbying Spending by State ($M, Top 10)
By total spending, California and Virginia are nearly tied for second at $2.64–2.65 billion each. But they reach that number very differently. California has 38.97 million people and 4,744 unique lobbying clients across tech, entertainment, agriculture, and defense. Virginia has 8.68 million people and 2,424 clients concentrated in defense and government services.
Texas ($1.35 billion, $44/capita) lobbies primarily on energy — it's the only top-five state where energy (4,430 filings) ranks in the top two issues alongside budget/appropriations. Texas also has heavy transportation lobbying (3,823 filings), reflecting its infrastructure needs and its oil and gas pipeline network.
New York ($1.30 billion, $66/capita) has a distinctive financial services lobbying footprint. Financial services (FIN) ranks 4th among New York's top issues with 3,378 filings — a reflection of Wall Street's ongoing regulatory battles with the SEC, CFTC, and banking regulators.
Small States That Punch Above Their Weight
The per capita ranking surfaces some surprises. Connecticut — population 3.6 million — spends $92 per capita on lobbying, outranking states three times its size. Why? Insurance. Hartford is the insurance capital of America, and the insurance industry is one of the most heavily regulated (and most heavily lobbied) sectors. Pharmaceutical companies in Connecticut's biotech corridor add to the total.
Massachusetts ($108/capita) punches above its weight thanks to its concentration of biotech firms, universities (which lobby extensively on research funding), and defense contractors. The state's $759 million total puts it 7th nationally despite being only the 16th-largest state.
Colorado ($66/capita) is notable for its growing tech and aerospace sectors. Defense companies, telecoms, and energy firms headquartered in Colorado give the state a lobbying intensity that exceeds much larger states like Florida ($30/capita) and Ohio ($37/capita).
What They Lobby For
Each state's top lobbying issues reveal its economic DNA:
- DC: Tax, Budget, Healthcare, Trade, Medicare — the full federal agenda
- Virginia: Budget, Defense, Healthcare — the military-industrial complex
- California: Budget, Healthcare, Defense, Tax, Transportation — everything
- Texas: Budget, Energy, Tax, Transportation, Healthcare — oil and infrastructure
- New York: Budget, Healthcare, Tax, Financial Services — Wall Street plus hospitals
Budget/Appropriations appears in every state's top five, which makes sense — every state wants federal money. But the second issue tells you what that state's economy actually depends on. Virginia's is Defense. Texas's is Energy. New York's is Healthcare (hospitals, pharmaceutical companies) with Financial Services close behind.
The Geography of Dependency
Here's the uncomfortable truth: the geographic concentration of lobbying in and around Washington DC reveals a geographic concentration of dependency on government. The states and jurisdictions that lobby the most are the ones whose economies are most intertwined with federal spending and regulation.
DC itself is the extreme case — a city whose economy is the federal government and the industries that serve it. Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland are extensions of the same ecosystem. When the government shuts down, DC restaurants empty out. When the defense budget rises, Northern Virginia real estate prices spike.
This geographic dependency creates a self-reinforcing loop. The more a region's economy depends on government, the more it lobbies, the more government spending flows to that region, the more dependent it becomes. It's a fiscal black hole from which no lobbying dollar escapes.
Explore State-by-State Data
OpenLobby's state explorer lets you drill into any state's lobbying profile — top spenders, top issues, trends over time. Compare your state to others, or see how your state's lobbying priorities align with its economy.
For the national picture, visit our trends dashboard or explore the industry breakdown to see which sectors drive lobbying in each region.
$27,105 per person. That's the price of living in America's lobbying capital — the city where the nation's influence is bought, sold, and concentrated in a 68-square-mile district that was never supposed to be a state at all.