Citizens United, GOP state parties file FEC complaint over Biden-Harris campaign funds

The conservative group Citizens United, 16 state Republican parties, and one territorial GOP party filed a complaint with the FEC on Thursday over the transfer of campaign funds from the Biden campaign to the Harris campaign. (Getty Images)

WASHINGTON – A conservative group and a group of Republican state parties Thursday filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission accusing Vice President Kamala Harris of improperly assuming control of Biden campaign funds after he withdrew from the race.

The complaint is asking the FEC’s six-person commission – split evenly between Democrats and Republicans – to “immediately initiate enforcement proceedings to prevent Harris from using her ill-gotten gains for her campaign in the little time remaining between now and the November general election.”

After President Joe Biden suspended his reelection campaign and endorsed Harris to take his place as the likely Democratic nominee, the Biden campaign officially changed its name to the Harris campaign, giving the vice president access to about $96 million of campaign funds as of June 30.

Harris campaign spokesperson Charles Kretchmer Lutvak said in a statement to States Newsroom that the complaint had no merit.

“Republicans may be jealous that Democrats are energized to defeat Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, but baseless legal claims – like the ones they’ve made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections – will only distract them while we sign up volunteers, talk to voters, and win this election,” he said.

The FEC declined to comment.

Citizens United, a group that led the reversal of campaign finance restrictions in a 2010 Supreme Court case, was joined by one U.S. territory, the Virgin Islands, and 16 state GOP parties.

Those state GOP parties are Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming.

The Harris campaign stated it raised $100 million from Sunday, when Biden announced he would bow out of the race, to Monday evening. Those campaign records won’t be publicly available until mid-October, when quarterly reports are due to the FEC.

The Trump campaign also filed a similar complaint to the FEC on Tuesday, according to CNN. 

The chair of the FEC, a Republican appointed in 2020 by Donald Trump, Sean Cooksey, indicated in a social media post that Harris might not have access to the funds, pointing to a regulation.

“If the candidate is not a candidate in the general election, all contributions made for the general election shall be either returned or refunded to the contributors or redesignated …, or reattributed …, as appropriate,” he wrote.

Because Harris is the vice president, her name was on Biden’s presidential campaign committee. However, any complaint is likely not going to be resolved before the November elections, as the FEC is still reviewing cases from the 2016 election.