Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the support of enough Democratic delegates to become her party’s presumptive nominee against Republican Donald Trump after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.
After Biden’s announcement, multiple VERIFY readers asked us what would happen to the Biden campaign’s $91 million war chest and whether current Vice President Kamala Harris is allowed to use that money to fund her bid for president.
THE QUESTION
Is Vice President Harris allowed to use Biden’s campaign funds for her presidential campaign?
THE SOURCES
- Federal campaign finance regulations
- FEC filing for Biden for President campaign committee
- Trevor Potter, founder and president of the Campaign Legal Center
- Daniel Weiner, director of the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program
- Fox News opinion piece written by Hans A. von Spakovsky, manager of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative
- Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a law professor at Stetson University
THE ANSWER
Yes, Vice President Kamala Harris is allowed to use Biden’s campaign funds for her own presidential campaign because the two of them share a campaign account.
WHAT WE FOUND
Vice President Kamala Harris is allowed to use the money President Joe Biden has raised because the two of them share a campaign account.
As his running mate, Harris’ name appeared alongside Biden’s as a candidate on the FEC filing for the Biden for President campaign committee. After Biden dropped out of the race, the Biden campaign officially changed its name with the FEC to Harris for President.
The FEC has “long permitted candidates for president and vice president to share a campaign account,” Daniel Weiner, director of the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program, told VERIFY.
Federal campaign finance rules also say, “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.”
In other words, a campaign account for the presidential candidate’s principal committee – in this case, Biden for President – is shared with the vice presidential candidate.
“I think that the law pretty clearly points toward Vice President Harris having a claim to his campaign funds and the reason is simply that the campaign account belongs to both of them. Their names are both on it,” Weiner said.
Trevor Potter, the founder and president of the Campaign Legal Center, agrees. He said that “because Biden and Harris share a campaign committee,” Harris and her running mate can continue using the Biden campaign’s existing funds for the general election “if she is on the Democratic ticket as either the presidential or vice-presidential nominee.”
Hans A. von Spakovsky, manager of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative, also said in an opinion piece for Fox News that Harris would have access to Biden’s campaign cash if she becomes the Democrats’ presidential nominee.
Some people, like Trump-appointed Republican FEC Chairman Sean Cooksey, say the issue isn’t as cut-and-dried as other campaign finance experts have made it out to be.
Former President Trump’s campaign has also filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) over Biden giving his campaign funds to Harris.
In response, Weiner said there is “always some room” for legal arguments since the current situation – the presumptive presidential nominee dropping out weeks before his party convention and giving his campaign funds over to someone else – hasn’t happened before. But he said it’s “kind of hard to come to a different conclusion in light of the longstanding practice that the Federal Election Commission has adopted.”
Ellen Weintraub, a Democrat and vice chair of the FEC, also told NPR the issue “doesn’t look that complicated” to her because Harris’ name was always on the statement of organization for Biden’s presidential campaign committee.
The chances of any issues, such as the Trump campaign’s complaint, being resolved before the election are also “virtually nil,” Weiner said. That’s because the FEC tends to take one to five years to resolve complaints, he said.
In the unlikely event that Harris is not the Democrats’ presidential nominee, Biden’s campaign could only donate $2,000 of the money in its account to another candidate under campaign finance rules, Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a law professor at Stetson University, said.
However, “a candidate’s authorized committee may transfer unlimited campaign funds to a party committee or organization,” the FEC notes.
“This is why the Biden campaign could transfer unlimited funds to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) if it wished” and the DNC “would have to report this incoming infusion of cash,” Torres-Spelliscy said.
Party committees like the DNC are allowed under FEC rules to spend some funds in coordination with the eventual presidential nominee, Potter said. For the 2024 campaign, the limit is $32.4 million.
This story is also available in Spanish / Lee este artículo también en español: Sí, la vicepresidenta Harris puede usar los fondos de campaña de Biden en su carrera presidencial
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