Here’s what happens to candidates’ leftover money

Federal candidates for the U.S. House and Senate raised more than $3 billion in the 2021-22 midterm cycle, but not every penny gets spent. Now with the elections over, where does that extra cash go?

Leftover money can be transferred to other candidates’ races, political parties, PACs, charities, even potential recounts. The final destination for this cash can provide insight into a candidate’s future political ambitions. If they plan to run for office again, they can use leftover funds for another campaign.

“It’s really only the people who are ending their kind of public life who really donate it to charity,” said Michael Kang, Northwestern Law professor. “The other candidates are just taking a break, and they’ll probably retain that money in some form or deploy it politically in ways that are useful for their career.”

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In the past, high-profile candidates like Mike Bloomberg have funneled $18 million of campaign cash into the DNC after dropping out of the 2020 presidential race. Heidi Heitkamp’s defeated 2018 Senate campaign donated half a million dollars to the One Country Fund, a PAC she co-founded with fellow former Sen. Joe Donnelly, who also lost his re-election bid. 

Candidates can’t use leftover campaign money for personal use, but that line can get blurry.

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“You couldn’t use it just to buy pizza dinner on a Saturday night with your family,” Kang said. But you might be able to spend funds on a pizza dinner for campaign staff at work, he added.

If the Federal Election Commission suspects that funds listed in a campaign report were put toward personal use, they can request more information. But some experts say that enforcement is not always rigorous.

“[The FEC’s] been described by academics as, you know, an agency that was designed to fail because it requires bipartisan cooperation, and that’s pretty hard to find these days,” Kang said.