But more than $90 million was held by Biden’s principal campaign committee — the official vehicle for the Biden-Harris reelection campaign. FEC filings suggest that those funds will now be used by the Harris campaign. Is that legal?
Most campaign finance experts think it is. The rationale here is straightforward. FEC regulations provide that “any campaign depository designated by the principal campaign committee of a political party’s candidate for President shall be the campaign depository for that political party’s candidate for the office of Vice President.” Therefore, Biden’s committee, which was also his principal campaign committee in 2020, has jointly listed Harris in its FEC filings ever since she first became his running mate. Once Biden withdrew from the race this year, the committee simply updated its FEC registration to replace Biden with Harris at the top of the ticket.
It is true that FEC regulations and federal statutory law do not address this exact situation . . . But the commission has never suggested that an incumbent vice president must at any point establish her own campaign committee, let alone provided specific guidance for when doing so might be necessary. All incumbent presidential and vice-presidential candidates in recent memory have run for reelection together as a single ticket, sharing one committee before and after formal renomination.
Tag Archives: Federal Election Commission
“Trump campaign wants FEC to block Harris from accessing Biden’s campaign money”
The Trump campaign has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission claiming that Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign cannot take over President Joe Biden’s campaign’s money, calling it a violation of campaign finance contribution limit.
“Kamala Harris is seeking to perpetrate a $91.5 million dollar heist of Joe Biden’s leftover campaign cash — a brazen money grab that would constitute the single largest excessive contribution and biggest violation in the history of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended,” the complaint filed Tuesday and obtained by ABC News, claims. . . .
Other election experts ABC News has spoken with have refuted that argument, saying that has not been the FEC’s interpretation of federal election law.
“That might’ve been an issue if this were their first cycle as a ticket, but under FEC rules it’s been Harris’s campaign committee too since 2020 — she’s not being added now,” said Adav Noti, a former FEC attorney who now serves as executive director of watchdog group Campaign Legal Center.