Sean Cooksey, a Trump appointee to chair the Federal Election Commission, suggested Monday that Vice President Harris may not be able to access millions of dollars left over from President Biden’s campaign, which many campaign finance lawyers say is her rightful property.
Biden shocked the race on Sunday by announcing he was withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race, citing concerns about his age and mental health, in favor of his vice president. Just under $96 million According to its most recent filing with the FEC as of June 30, its cash balance was Documents submitted It will change its name from “Biden for President” to “Harris for President” within hours of the president’s decision.
Even before the campaign filed for the name change, Harris It is described as He and Biden are currently filing paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.
Campaign finance lawyers previously told The Hill that money would be available to Harris if she becomes the nominee, and while Democrats are beginning to rally behind her, Cooksey called the situation “complicated” and suggested it would be challenged in the campaign finance office and in court.
“The short answer is, I think it’s really complicated,” Cooksey said. He spoke on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”“What he’s trying to do is transfer the entire committee, all the cash and assets to someone else.”
“I think it’s going to have to go through the FEC,” Cooksey added. “It’s probably going to be challenged at the FEC and it’s probably going to be challenged in court.”
Dara Lindenbaum, a Democrat who chaired the committee last year, pushed back against the suggestion that Harris doesn’t have access to those funds.
“It’s clear that Vice President Harris can continue to use her campaign committee and its funding,” Lindenbaum told The Hill.
Steve Roberts, a former attorney for Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswami, was also skeptical of Cooksey’s comments.
“This interpretation is likely wishful thinking,” Roberts told The Hill.
“It’s reasonable to assume that Harris and Biden have shared the Biden campaign committee since they announced their candidacy in 2024, and this is probably because they are the incumbents. Otherwise, in 2020, Trump and Pence would not have had a shared committee, but would have set up separate committees with donation limits for each,” he explained.
Cooksey FEC in 2020 by then-President Trump, who accepted the Republican presidential nomination in Milwaukee last week.
Cooksey told NPR that the six-person committee can only have three members from each party at any one time and that it’s “perfectly reasonable” to scrutinize members’ political motivations, but he defended his own record.
“I always try to approach these issues based on what the law requires and what is the best policy, not what gives people a particular partisan advantage in the short term,” Cooksey said.
Cooksey has sided with Democratic candidates and committees on controversial opinions that have angered many campaign finance reform advocates, including recent decisions to allow candidates to raise unlimited funds for state-level ballot measures, lift restrictions on certain mass text messages and make it easier for candidates and super PACs (which can raise unlimited amounts of money) to coordinate on campaigns.
Roberts said a transition of power could come with challenges, but that the short time between next month’s Democratic National Convention and the general election in November would be a challenge.
“The Trump campaign can and probably will challenge how the funds were spent, but given the extremely short time it took for the Harris campaign to begin withdrawing general election contributions after the convention, the Federal Election Commission is unlikely to be able to block anything,” Roberts said.
Cooksey told NPR that the situation is “truly unprecedented” and suggested that private parties could file a complaint or request an advisory opinion, but acknowledged that such a process would be incredibly slow, with just 106 days until the general election.
If Harris isn’t the candidate or is unable to receive the funds, the money could be transferred to the Democratic National Committee or a super PAC supporting a candidate.
