WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s signature campaign promise was to “drain the swamp” – that is, rid Washington, D.C., of special-interest lobbying and political insiders.

Yet money spent on lobbying has reached historic heights, in both Minnesota and the nation, since Trump assumed office in January of last year.

According to LegiStorm, a public affairs financial tracker, Minnesota corporations, non-profits and state and local governments spent more than ever — about $72 million — on lobbying in the capital last year and are on track to surpass that figure this year.

For instance, Eden Prairie-based UnitedHealth Group spent $12.5 million lobbying the federal government last year and $4.73 million in the first half of this year.

Nationally, spending on lobbying climbed to $5.13 billion last year, according to OpenSecrets, another watchdog group, and those expenditures hit a record $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2026.

Money has always been spent in Washington to influence members of Congress and the White House. 

But Craig Holman, an expert on lobbying and ethics at Public Citizen, said the Trump administration, and the president himself, have signaled they are “responsive to money.”

“Lobbying can be exceedingly effective today,” Holman said. “You just have to have a lot of money.”

OpenSecrets determined that the big lobbying firms in Washington that have ties to Trump experienced the largest increases in clients and revenue. Most of their clients are corporations and other deep-pocketed entities.

Another change in the lobbying world since Trump began his second term in the White House and both chambers of Congress became controlled by the GOP is that more lobbyists in Minnesota now are considered “Republican.”

That’s because they are largely staffed by former GOP lawmakers and staffers who have worked in Republican congressional offices. 

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When former President Biden was in office and there was a Democratic majority in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, the 250 or so entities in Minnesota hired more “Democratic” lobbying firms than Republican ones.

For instance, before the GOP won its trifecta, Twin Metals, a mining company that wants to establish a copper-nickel mine in Superior National Forest, was represented by a lobbying firm that was considered nonpartisan.

But as of the first quarter of 2025, it changed lobbyists, hiring The Bernardt Group, a firm rated by LegiStorm as “Strongly Republican.”

Twin Metals has paid that firm nearly $700,000 since then. The company declined to say why it had changed its representation in Washington.

Big money influencers

Not surprisingly, Minnesota’s Fortune 500 companies are among those that spend the most money trying to influence federal lawmakers and officials.

UnitedHealth Group spends its millions on a robust internal lobbying shop – where more than half of the company’s lobbying dollars are spent – as well as to hire external lobbyists.

Among the company’s external lobbyists is Ballard Partners, which UnitedHeath Group has paid $300,00 this year. The lobbying shop, which boasts that it represents the nation’s top corporations, is among the fastest growing lobbying firms and has a strong tie to Trump.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles is a former Ballard lobbyist.

UnitedHealth Group has also hired BRG Group, another firm whose revenues have soared since Trump’s second inauguration. The firm is led by former Trump campaign adviser, David Urban, and Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, is a former BRG lobbyist.

Meanwhile, Wayzata-based Cargill has spent $660,000 on lobbying this year and Target has spent $880,000.

According to LegiStorm, “Health issues” was at the top of concerns in Minnesota when it came to hiring a Washington lobbyist in the third quarter of this year. That was followed by “Budget/Appropriations,” Medicaid and Medicare, taxation and agriculture as the state’s top lobbying concerns. 

Holman said there’s a reason health issues are at the top of the list of lobbying priorities in Minnesota and elsewhere, and that is because “Trump has been an existential threat” to the Affordable Care Act, resulting in a rush of lobbying for and against the landmark health care bill.

Holman also said there has been fierce lobbying over the cost of prescription drugs, too, since Trump assumed office because the president has yet to declare who he will support in a battle that includes hospitals, pharmaceutical manufacturers, trade groups and pharmacy benefit managers.

Counties, cities lobby too 

Local governments also hire lobbyists to try to achieve favorable results.

Washington County, for instance, has since 2008 hired representatives in Washington to help it navigate the federal government.

According to LegiStorm, in the first three quarters of this year the county spent $100,000 on three lobbying firms: Downs Government Affairs, Aurora Strategic Advisors and Marcus G. Faust P.C.

“They help us locate opportunities,” Deputy County Administrator Jan Lucke said. “They help us with grant applications and other federal funding.”

Lucke said the lobbyists worked to win more than $6 million in earmarks for the county last year. Most of that money will improve an intersection in Forest Lake and prevent that crossing from flooding with a new storm water system.

Another earmark provides new body cameras for the county sheriff’s office, and a third will convert a four-way stop into a roundabout in Woodbury.

Olmsted County, Dakota County and the cities of Duluth and Lakeland are also among local governments that have hired guns in Washington.

In a statement, the city of Duluth said “contracting for federal advocacy is a normal tool of municipal government, particularly for a regional center like Duluth.”

“The city has had a federal government affairs contract for the past 22 years and considers it a modest investment to help compete for federal funding and influence policy affecting a wide range of issues including local infrastructure, economic development, housing, and affordability,” the city said.

Related: State releases a trove of lobbying data, but what does it actually show?

Nonprofits in the state also pay to have influence in Washington.

For example, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, two conservation groups that work together, paid two lobbying firms $210,000 in the first three quarters of 2026.

The groups’ spokesman, Jared Wiklund, said the focus of its lobbying is the five-year farm bill, which pays landowners to conserve their land.

“In Washington, the farm bill is America’s single source of conservation funding for private lands, and private lands are where most pheasants and quail live,” Wiklund said.

Although many millions of dollars are spent lobbying Congress on the farm bill, the legislation is tied up in the Senate by partisan fights over food stamps and other programs.

In lobbying disclosure reports, the farm bill is nearly always cited as the most critical issue by Minnesota’s agriculture industry and food processing companies like Cargill.

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