Describe how candidates raise the money they need to run.Among other things,explain the primary sources of campaign donations,how campaign contributions are (and are not)regulated in the United States and how the Supreme Court has ruled in recent years with regard to campaign finance laws.

There are three components to this question.
a.Sources of campaign donations: Campaign donations come from individual (usually wealthy)donors,political parties,political action committees,Super PACs,527 committees and 501(c)(4)s.
b.Regulations and Supreme Court decisions: Under federal law,individuals may donate as much as $2,700 per candidate per election,$5,000 per PAC per calendar year,$33,400 per national party committee per calendar year,and $10,000 to state and local committees per calendar year.Super PACs,527 committees and 501(c)(4)s are independent groups that are not covered by the campaign-spending restrictions imposed in 2002 by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act,but now raise much of the money used for political campaigns.These groups can raise and spend unlimited amounts so long as their efforts are not coordinated with those of any candidate's campaign.Unlike a 527,a 501(c)(4)is not required to disclose where it gets its funds or exactly what it does with them.
c.Supreme Court decisions: Super PACs came about after the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v.Federal Election Commission that the government could not restrict independent expenditures by corporations or unions to political campaigns.Following that decision,SpeechNow v.FEC permitted individuals and organizations to form committees that could raise unlimited amounts of money to run advertising for and against candidates so long as their efforts were not coordinated with those of the candidates.In 2014 the Supreme Court removed additional limits on individuals' campaign contributions in its decision in McCutcheon et al.v.Federal Election Commission.