Introducing QuarexData — April 26, 2026

Hi everyone,

I'm launching a sister product to Quarex called QuarexData. It's now live at quarexdata.org.

Here's what it is and why it matters for Quarex.

The Problem

Quarex is free, and I want it to stay free forever. But the platform has real running costs — AI APIs, hosting, broadcast infrastructure, election data scraping. Asking Quarex users to pay for any of it would compromise what makes Quarex valuable: open access, no ads, no spin, no paywall.

So I needed a separate product that could pay the bills without touching Quarex. QuarexData is that product.

What QuarexData Is

Clean, structured political data for journalists, campaigns, and researchers. Two main datasets:

State ballot measures — every measure voters are actually deciding, across all 50 states. From California's tax wars to Florida's amendments to Texas's propositions, structured uniformly. Ballotpedia covers this thinly; nobody else does it cleanly.
Federal candidate races — every U.S. House, Senate, and Governor candidate for 2026, refreshed weekly. The same authoritative dataset that powers Quarex's election research, available as clean JSON.

Why this combination? Ballot measures reveal what voters care about. Candidate data reveals who's running. Together they're the ground truth for anyone covering, studying, or running in U.S. elections. Ballotpedia charges $1,000-$56,000 per year for this kind of data. We'll charge a fraction.

What's Live Today (Free Browsing)

California ballot measures: 3 qualified for the November 2026 ballot, plus 46 initiatives in the pipeline at various stages. Each measure has the official Legislative Counsel's Digest summary, LAO fiscal impact analysis, proponents, dates, and source PDFs.

Coming Soon (Programmatic Access)

Federal candidate data: 56 U.S. House districts, 33 Senate races, and 39 Governor races for 2026 — refreshed weekly with full primary and general candidate fields, including party, district, and filing changes week-over-week. This is the same dataset that powers Quarex's election research, available as clean JSON via API.

Plus state ballot measures across all 50 states, structured uniformly, as we roll them out.

The Business Model

Free to browse, paid to download.

Free tier: Anyone can visit quarexdata.org/measures/ca/ and read every measure in detail. Forever. No paywall, no signup required.
Paid tier (coming soon): Bulk JSON downloads and API access for journalists, campaigns, PACs, civic tech firms, and academic researchers who need the data programmatically.

Ballotpedia charges thousands of dollars per year for similar data. QuarexData will charge a fraction of that — because the technology is automated, the marginal cost is near zero, and the goal isn't to maximize per-customer revenue. The goal is to fund Quarex.

How It Funds Quarex

Every dollar QuarexData earns goes back into the broader Quarex ecosystem. AI API costs. Hosting. Election scraping. New features. The free national QuarexRadio feed. The free QuarexNews local pages. All of it.

This is the same model behind a lot of mission-driven free services — have a separate commercial arm that pays the bills so the free side never has to compromise. Quarex stays free because QuarexData earns.

Take a look:

California 2026 ballot measures, free to browse

View QuarexData →

What's Next

More states — Florida, Texas, Ohio, Arizona, Colorado are next. Goal: all 50 states by year end.
Bulk download / API tier — once we have enough states to justify it.
Outreach to potential customers — newsrooms, advocacy groups, academic researchers.

If you know anyone in journalism, political research, or civic tech who might find this useful, please share quarexdata.org. The more eyeballs on the free side, the more potential paying customers on the paid side, the more sustainable Quarex becomes.

Thanks for being part of this.

— Peter