Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) announced Monday that he has petitioned the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) to take immediate action to “close fundraising loopholes that jeopardize American election integrity” following his investigation into the Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue.
In a press release, Paxton said that suspicious actors appear to be using ActBlue “to make a large number of straw political donations.”
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Security measures implemented by the largest payment platform used by Democratic candidates to process political donations failed to address GOP concerns that spurred the payment processor to respond in the first place.
In 2023, Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Republican Wisconsin Rep. Bryan Steil both raised concerns that ActBlue not requiring users to input a credit verification value (CVV), the three numbers on the back of credit cards, when making donations increased the risk of fraudulent contributions being made. ActBlue has since required that donors using debit or credit cards on their platform input CVVs. The requirement, however, can be easily circumvented by donating through PayPal, Google Pay or Venmo, all of which are still options on ActBlue.
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If Donald Trump gets past Kamala Harris on Nov. 5, he’ll likely face a fiercer opponent in court – her campaign attorney, Marc Elias, who has vowed to fight the election outcome in every close state she loses.
The longtime Democratic Party lawyer has already filed more than 60 preelection lawsuits to stop Trump from becoming president again by combatting what he calls Republican “voter suppression” efforts such as requiring voters to provide identification at the polls. Echoing a standard Democratic talking point, Elias maintains that such requirements are “racist” strategies designed to make it harder for minorities to vote.
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The National Republican Congressional Committee reported in a Friday filing with the Federal Election Commission that Elon Musk increased his political contributions in August with his largest-known donation to date, Politico reported.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) reported a contribution of $289,100 from Musk, aimed at bolstering the Republican efforts to maintain their majority in the House, according to Politico. This donation was funneled through a joint fundraising committee associated with Republican California Rep. Ken Calvert, earmarked primarily for the NRCC’s convention and headquarters activities.
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Over the past week, The Tennessee Star has been tracking Tennessee’s apparent “ghost donors” to far-left Political Action Committee (PAC) ActBlue who have contributed more than 1,000 times to the organization since the beginning of 2023.
Cynthia Matthews of Nashville is another “ghost donor” identified by The Star.
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A Tennessee woman who has allegedly donated to far-left PAC ActBlue evaded questions from The Tennessee Star Thursday.
The Star reported Thursday morning that a Nashville-area woman named Martha Wettemann has made 1,151 contributions to ActBlue since the beginning of 2023, totaling about $29,000.
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A Nashville-area woman has made 1,151 contributions to left-wing Political Action Committee (PAC) ActBlue since the beginning of 2023, according to Federal Elections Commission (FEC) records.
Those donations add up to a total of 29,000.52 since January 1, 2023, which is 589 days.
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According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, Gerald McAteer, an unemployed man in Franklin, Tennessee, made 2,629 individual contributions to Democrat PAC ActBlue, totaling $15,928.24, since the beginning of 2024.
At the time of this writing, McAteer, over the past 588 days, has contributed to ActBlue an average of 4.47 times per day for an average of just over $6 per donation, or a little more than $27 per day.
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The Tennessee Star has identified seven people who the leftist political donation platform ActBlue reported to campaign finance authorities “donated” more than 1,000 times since the beginning of 2023, further adding to the suspicions that the company is committing fraud.
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Former President Donald Trump announced Thursday his campaign has raised nearly $140 million for July.
Within an fundraising update for the month of July, Trump’s campaign stated they’ve pulled in a total of $138.7 million, thus providing a cash on hand total of $327 million. The new numbers come after Trump was confirmed as the GOP’s presidential nominee at the Republican National Committee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and notably after the failed assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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Data recently published by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) shows Tennessee incumbent U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) sitting on more than $7.1 million cash on hand than her leading Democratic challenger, Tennessee State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville).
Blackburn’s cash on hand as of June 30 is reported to be $9,227,961.41 while Johnson’s reported amount is $2,050,627.43 – a total difference of $7,177,333.98.
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Hillary Clinton’s New York-based presidential campaign was hit with an administrative fine by the Federal Election Commission following the 2016 election when the FEC found the campaign misrepresented campaign expenses by describing the opposition research that produced the discredited Steele Dossier as a “legal expense.” The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid $113,000 to settle the charges, the Associated Press reported.
Yet, Donald Trump faces felony charges for allegedly falsifying business records to conceal campaign violations in the same state, echoing the alleged violations in the Clinton case and indicating a double standard in how the violations were handled by investigators.
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Aaron Gulbransen, executive director of the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, said the controversy surrounding Tennessee U.S. Representative Andy Ogles’ (R-TN-05) campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is “real,” however, believes it is not of much concern for the average voter.
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U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) submitted a total of 11 amended campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Wednesday. The new details provided by Ogles reveal his campaign originally misstated its cash-on-hand in June 2022 by more than $290,000.
Ogles’ 11 amended reports are for reporting periods between April 1, 2022 and March 31, 2024. The first amended filing, which includes the $290,000 discrepancy, covers the period when Ogles previously reported a $320,000 personal loan to his campaign.
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Vulnerable Senate Democrats, who often try to distance themselves from Washington, D.C., have emerged as favorites among employees at the nation’s largest lobbying firms.
Sens. Jon Tester of Montana, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania and Sherrod Brown of Ohio were among the top recipients of donations from people working at the ten firms with the highest lobbying income, a Daily Caller News Foundation review of public records has found. Tester received the second most money of any candidate from America’s top lobbying firms, Rosen was third, Casey was fourth and Brown was fifth, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.
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Several high profile attorneys at a major law firm with an office in Nashville donated money to an exploratory committee for a Democrat who considered running against U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R).
According to Federal Elections Commission (FEC) records, partners at Holland & Knight, a Tampa, Florida based law firm with a large presence in Nashville, donated thousands to fellow attorney Joanne Sowell’s exploratory committee.
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Former President Donald Trump has been leading his Republican presidential nomination rivals in small-dollar donations by a large margin, underscoring the breadth of his support, experts tell the Daily Caller News Foundation.
A small donor contributes less than $200 to an individual candidate’s campaign, out of a maximum of $3,300 for the 2023-2024 electoral cycle, per the Federal Election Commission (FEC), with a greater number of small donations — as a share of total fundraising — indicating a larger base of support. Currently, 81.8% of donations to Trump’s campaign have been made by small donors, according to an Axios assessment of FEC data.
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GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley says her campaign has banked $15.6 million since she launched her bid for the White House in February.
The former South Carolina governor on Monday announced that her campaign raised $7.3 million in the second quarter of the year, which wrapped up June 30.
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by Mary Lou Masters Miami’s conservative Mayor Francis Suarez announced Thursday morning he’s seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, joining an increasingly growing GOP primary field. Suarez filed the paperwork to run for president with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Wednesday. The 43rd Miami mayor’s announcement comes ahead of his official campaign launch speech Thursday evening at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California. The mayor’s announcement makes him the third presidential candidate from Florida, along with his governor, Ron DeSantis, and former President Donald Trump. Suarez has the backing of a political action committee (PAC) SOS America, who has already begun fundraising for the mayor, and released a campaign-like advertisement video harping on his record in Miami for cutting taxes, decreasing crime and bolstering the business community. “America needs a leader ready to act — Francis Suarez will not back down,” the video said. “A father, a husband and a proud believer in American exceptionalism. Protecting American families, supporting law enforcement and defending the American dream — this is Miami Mayor Suarez’s Miami Model.” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is running for President https://t.co/uTeOzqHM9U — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 14, 2023 Before being elected as the city’s first Miami-born mayor in…
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The Federal Election Commission owes Americans an explanation.
In late March, muckraking journalist James O’Keefe of O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) knocked on the doors of a few older and unemployed Americans, to ask them about their campaign donations, which were nothing less than extraordinary: Some were donating thousands of times, adding up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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Democratic New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez concealed thousands of dollars in campaign spending, an ethics complaint exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation alleges.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint cites more than $9,600 in reported campaign credit card expenditures that lacked information on the purpose of the charges. Dan Backer filed the complaint on behalf of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, a nonprofit organization that’s levied similar complaints.
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Two Republican lawmakers from Ohio filed a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission (FEC), alleging it violates candidates First amendment rights by limiting their ability to coordinate with political parties, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The lawsuit, filed on Nov. 4 by Senator-elect JD Vance and Representative Steve Chabot, as well as the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) in an Ohio district court, claims that FEC guidelines which “limits… coordinated party expenditures” violates the First Amendment “by strictly limiting how much of [a party committee’s] own money they can spend to influence federal elections in cooperation- or ‘coordination’- with their candidates.”
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The founder of now-defunct FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange that went bankrupt earlier this month, reportedly donated millions to a Political Action Committee (PAC) based in Phoenix.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly donated $27 million to the Protect Our Future PAC, according to Arizona Free News.
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In a Wednesday interview with SuperTalk 99.7 WTN host Michael DelGiorno, TN-5 candidate Andy Ogles misled the public again on the subject of his late-filed July quarterly campaign finance report and declined to address the reason why he late-filed.
Ogles filed his first campaign finance report for the Federal Election Commission (FEC) April 1 through June 30 reporting period on Saturday, July 23, eight days after the July 15 deadline.
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The Federal Election Commission (FEC) pre-primary reports were due on July 23 and three candidates, which include retired National Guard General Kurt Winstead, former speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Beth Harwell, and Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles, continue to show a massive financial lead over the rest of the nine candidate field in the August 4 Republican primary for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District seat.
Eight of the nine candidates filed the required report by July 23, which covered the reporting period dates of July 1 through July 15.
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Tennessee 5th Congressional District candidate Andy Ogles filed his first campaign finance report for the Federal Election Commission (FEC) April 1 through June 30 reporting period on Saturday, eight days after the July 15 deadline. Ogles is one of nine candidates listed on the August 4 primary ballot who are seeking the Republican nomination in Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional district.
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Seven days after the filing deadline, TN-5 candidate Andy Ogles has still failed to file a campaign finance report as of close of Federal Election Commission (FEC) business on Thursday.
The FEC second quarter filing deadline for the reporting period covering April 1 through June 30 was July 15.
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Six days have passed since the July 15 FEC finance report deadline for the reporting period covering April 1 through June 30, and Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles is now the only Tennessee Fifth Congressional District candidate who has not filed the required paperwork.
Paramedic Timothy Lee filed his campaign finance documents on Wednesday, making Ogles the only candidate in the nine-candidate field who has failed to file.
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The July 15 deadline for federal candidates to file their Federal Election Commission (FEC) second-quarter campaign finance reports has passed, and six of the nine candidates for the Republican nomination for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District seat have reports that are available for public viewing.
The FEC second-quarter reporting period covers April 1 through June 30.
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A new report details that Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) may have violated Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules by using funds to cover legal expenses.
According to Politico, Warnock took campaign money to cover the cost of a lawsuit that pertained to his time before becoming an elected official.
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FEC records show that Baxter Lee, a candidate for the GOP nomination in the race for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District race has raised $317,380 for the 2022 first quarter reporting period.
Lee also matched his contributions with a personal loan to the campaign, making the total receipts for the first quarter $634,760.
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The Tennessee Secretary of State’s office has posted their updated list of individuals who have begun collecting petitions to run for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District seat.
Fourteen candidates are collecting petitions for the 5th Congressional seat: Eight Republicans, three Democrats, and three Independents are listed by the Secretary of State’s office as having begun collecting petitions.
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The Tennessee Secretary of State’s office is now posting weekly updates to the list of individuals collecting petitions for various offices in Tennessee.
The Secretary of State’s website lists 11 individuals collecting petitions in the race for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District seat.
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The New York Times quietly removed its assertion that the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop prior to the 2020 election was “unsubstantiated” from a story published Monday about a Federal Election Commission complaint related to the matter.
The Times reported Monday that the FEC ruled in August that Twitter did not violate any laws by temporarily blocking users from sharing the Post’s Oct. 14 story on a “smoking gun” email from Hunter Biden’s laptop showing that an executive of a Ukrainian gas company had thanked him for an introduction to then-Vice President Joe Biden. The Times called the story “unsubstantiated” when its article on the FEC’s decision was first published early Monday afternoon.
“The Federal Election Commission has dismissed Republican accusations that Twitter violated election laws in October by blocking people from posting links to an unsubstantiated New York Post article about Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son Hunter Biden, in a decision that is likely to set a precedent for future cases involving social media sites and federal campaigns,” Times reporter Shane Goldmacher stated in its original version of his report Monday.
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The Jack White for Attorney General campaign confirmed to The Virginia Star that Jack White gave $5,600 to campaign committees associated with the Biden for President campaign in October 2020. The money was sent as two separate contributions. The first donation occurred October 1st, 2020, to the Biden Victory Fund in the amount of $2,800. The second donation occurred 29 days later on October 30th, 2020 to the Biden Action Fund for $2,800. The Star published a story on April 25 with the headline “Virginia GOP Attorney General Candidate Jack White Gave More Than $10k to Biden in 2020—Including $2,800 Days Before Election,” the details of which were confirmed in the story by White campaign spokesperson Alyssa Farah: When reached for comment, White for Attorney General Campaign Spokesperson Alyssa Farah, did confirm that it was, in fact Jack White, candidate for Attorney General, that made these campaign contributions. The White for AG campaign did say that Jack White voted for President Donald Trump in the 2020 general election. The following day, the White campaign approached The Star to ask for a correction on the amount of the donation given by White to the Biden campaign committees in 2020. It…
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Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that more than half of all donations made to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) in her 2020 re-election bid were paid to her husband’s business in the form of consulting fees.
Omar’s 2020 FEC report shows a total of 146 payments made to the E Street Group, her husband Tim Mynett’s firm. Those payments total $2.9 million. As reported by The Washington Free Beacon, that $2.9 million Mynett made from his wife’s re-election campaign accounted for about 80 percent of his firm’s revenue during the last election cycle.
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The Republican National Committee has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Twitter after the platform censored a New York Post expose on Hunter Biden published earlier this week. In a letter to the FECs general counsel on Friday, the RNC accused Twitter of violating federal campaign finance laws: “Through its ad hoc, partisan suppression of media critical of Biden, [Twitter] is making illegal, corporate in-kind contributions as it provides unheard-of media services for Joe Biden’s campaign.”
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Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s total campaign payments to her husband’s consulting firm now exceed seven figures after reporting additional funds paid to the company in the second quarter of 2020.
Omar’s campaign reported payments totaling $228,000 to E Street Group, the consulting firm run by her husband, Tim Mynett, in a filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) released Tuesday, bringing her total payments to the company to more than $1.1 million since August 2018.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) paid her husband’s political consulting firm another $292,000 in campaign funds during the first quarter of 2020.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) took to Twitter this week to “clear the air” regarding her marriage to Tim Mynett, a political consultant whose firm has received close to $600,000 from his wife’s campaign committee.
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The Michigan Democratic Party has filed an FEC complaint against Republican Senate candidate John James and a “dark money” group for alleged “illegal coordination.”
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Foreign nationals, under the direction of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, have sent thousands of texts and phone calls urging American voters to support the democratic socialist in the Democratic primaries.
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A complaint filed by a national nonprofit with the Federal Election Commission accuses Sen. Gary Peters of “using his campaign website to illegally coordinate with outside organizations that support his candidacy.”
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RESTON, VA — On Monday, The Media Research Center (MRC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against Bloomberg LP, the owner of Bloomberg News, Michael Bloomberg and Mike Bloomberg 2020, Inc.
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A new report claims that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) has been living “on and off” with married aide Tim Mynett, but the first-term congresswoman continues to deny the existence of their relationship.
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The chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission said Friday she supported investigating possible Russian funding for the National Rifle Association based solely on an anonymously-sourced McClatchy article.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN-05) campaign committee raked in an impressive $832,024 during her tumultuous first quarter as a member of Congress. Some of Omar’s donations to fellow Democrats, however, are being returned. Dan McCready, a North Carolina Democrat currently running in a special election, announced on Twitter Wednesday that he had returned Omar’s $2,000 donation. “Some folks are asking why I directed the return of Rep. Omar’s donation. I did this weeks ago because I vigorously disagree with any anti-Semitic comments,” he said. “Since this time, dangerous and hateful attacks have started against her. I condemn in the strongest terms the hateful rhetoric against her, the Muslim community and people of color.” Some folks are asking why I directed the return of Rep. Omar’s donation. I did this weeks ago because I vigorously disagree with any anti-semitic comments. Since this time, dangerous and hateful attacks have started against her… (thread) — Dan McCready (@McCreadyForNC) April 18, 2019 The Washington Free Beacon later reported that Reps. Lucy McBath (D-GA-06) and Jahana Hayes (D-CT-05) failed to disclose large contributions from Omar’s campaign. After The Free Beacon’s report, McBath revealed that the contribution from Omar was not accepted, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.…
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by Hanna Bogorowski The Republican National Committee (RNC) raised a record-breaking $14.2 million in July, the most the organization has ever raised for that month in a non-presidential year, bringing its cycle total to $227.2 million. The RNC reports having $41.9 million cash on-hand and zero dollars in debt. “We’ve used our unprecedented grassroots support to build the biggest field program we’ve ever had to defend our House and Senate majorities,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a press release to CBS News. “History might be against us, but we’re making sure every voter knows we’re the party of results. All the Democrats have is resistance,” she added. Not only is the fundraising haul substantial in itself, but the press release also notes it raised record-breaking funds despite transferring $4 million to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and another $4 million to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) in July for GOP candidates. July’s fundraising numbers are more than the RNC raised in the month of July in 2010 and 2014 combined. According to its last filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) at the end of June, the RNC also had a 5-to-1 cash on-hand advantage compared to the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Accounting for…
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by Peter Hasson and Joe Simonson – Twitter’s recent algorithm change suppressed, or “shadow-banned,” prominent conservatives, including Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, a new report found. – Gaetz is considering filing a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against Twitter, he told The Daily Caller News Foundation. – Gaetz said his Twitter account’s growth slowed immediately after Twitter’s recent algorithm change. Twitter acknowledged the “inaccurate” search results but said it was unrelated to politics. Rep. Matt Gaetz is considering filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) over Twitter’s alleged suppression of his account, the Florida Republican told The Daily Caller News Foundation on Wednesday. Gaetz was one of several prominent conservatives, including members of Congress and the chair of the Republican National Committee, whose accounts Twitter suppressed by making it harder to find in the site’s search function, a Vice News investigation published Wednesday found. “Democrats are not being ‘shadow banned’ in the same way,” the report concluded, noting: “Not a single member of the 78-person Progressive Caucus faces the same situation in Twitter’s search.” Twitter announced in May that the company would rely on “behavior-based signals” to boost the visibility of some accounts and to suppress the visibility of others, as…
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