It is unclear whether Vice President Kamala Harris will stand to obtain all of the money raised so far for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign if she receives the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.
The last time a sitting president from the Democratic Party declined the nomination was when President Lyndon Johnson did in March 1968.
The Democrats will formally pick their nominee at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The convention is scheduled to be held from Aug. 19 to Aug. 22.
State Democratic Party primaries overwhelmingly selected President Biden earlier this year, but they have thrown their support behind Ms. Harris in the past 24 hours.
This sets up an unprecedented scenario for the party. It also raises difficult questions about what might happen with President Biden’s campaign money.
On July 22, Judith Ingram, a spokeswoman for the Federal Election Commission (FEC), said the commission could not comment on individual candidates or committees.
“The commission has not directly addressed this situation in the past,” Ms. Ingram said.
In a July 21 post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, FEC Chairman Sean Cooksey cited an FEC provision that would force any candidate to “return or refund” all contributions “if the candidate is not a candidate in the general election.”
During an interview with NPR on July 22, Mr. Cooksey said the FEC is in an unprecedented position with a candidate dropping out only weeks before a convention and trying to transfer all of his campaign assets to another person.
Mr. Cooksey told the broadcaster that the FEC will likely need to sign off on Ms. Harris’s taking over those funds. The issue will be up for debate and could even face legal challenges from Republicans.
To further complicate matters, the commission is racing against the clock. Its next open meeting is scheduled for July 25.
FEC Vice Chair Ellen Weintraub has yet to make a public statement about the situation.
The Republican National Committee did not respond by publication time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment about the matter.
In an email, veteran Republican lawyer Charlie Spies told The Epoch Times that President Biden gathered the campaign money under his own name and that “there is no legal mechanism for it to have been raised jointly with Harris.”
Mr. Spies, formerly chief counsel at the RNC, is a member of Detroit-based law firm Dickinson Wright LLP’s Washington office and was also once counsel to the chair of the Federal Election Committee.
Ms. Ingram declined to comment on whether the six-member commission will be forced to make a decision on any campaign finance matters relating to President Biden and Ms. Harris. The FEC, formed in 1974 by the Federal Election Campaign Act, is made up of three Republicans and three Democrats.
As of the morning of July 22, the Democratic Party has not issued any formal statement about a nominee.
The latest statement, published on July 21 and attributed to Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, said nothing about Ms. Harris. It only promised a “transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November.”
Despite the legal uncertainty and potential hurdles, the Biden campaign’s FEC-registered apparatus transformed itself into the Harris campaign on July 21.
Employees of the Biden campaign identified themselves as working for “Harris for President” in social media posts on July 22. The campaign website for President Biden and similar sites either redirect to a page soliciting donations for Ms. Harris or are rebranded as “Harris for President.”
On July 21, the Biden campaign joint-fundraising committees—Biden Action Fund and Biden Victory Fund—renamed themselves Harris Action Fund and Harris Victory Fund. The principal campaign committee Biden for President renamed itself Harris for President.
Legally, however, only one committee, Future Forward, will be free to spend its money on whichever candidate it likes, according to FEC rules. Future Forward held about $122 million at the end of June, according to federal records.
According to FEC rules, the joint fundraising committee also has more freedom to distribute money to any committee that is registered in a joint fundraising agreement with it.
Harris for President is named on both Harris campaign joint-fundraising committees. Together, those accounts held about $63.2 million at the end of June, according to FEC records.
Harris for President held $96 million at the end of June, according to public records.
