The “unprecedented” nature of President Biden handing Vice President Kamala Harris the keys to his campaign war chest may prove “complicated” and spark legal challenges, the head of the Federal Election Commission warned Monday.
“I think it’s really complicated, is the short answer,” Federal Election Commission Chairman Sean Cooksey – an appointee of former President Donald Trump – told NPR when asked about the vice president’s ability to access the Biden campaign’s substantial assets.
“I mean, we take a step back to consider the situation – this is really unprecedented in terms of modern political history, and certainly in terms of campaign finance law,” he added. “We have a presidential nominee or a presumptive nominee dropping out just weeks before his party convention.”
Harris, 59, stands to inherit a hefty $240 million in cash from the Biden campaign, its joint fundraising committees and the Democratic National Committee in the wake of the 81-year-old president’s decision to withdraw from the 2024 race.
The Biden-Harris campaign quickly dropped Biden’s name from FEC paperwork on Sunday after the president’s announcement, with the campaign renaming itself “Harris for President” and designating the Harris Victory Fund and the Harris Action Fund as its joint fundraising committees.
Cooksey, one of six commissioners at the FEC, suggested that surrendering that money to Harris is not as simple and straightforward as some have suggested.
“What [Biden’s] attempting to do is to give his entire committee, the cash and all the assets, over to another person,” Cooksey explained.
“I think it’s gonna have to go through a process, through the FEC,” he added. “I expect, there’s probably going to be challenges to that at the agency, and probably in the courts as well.”
Cooksey acknowledged that some campaign finance lawyers have reached the conclusion that Harris has a legitimate claim to the Biden campaign funds, but he noted that other experts haven’t.
“I think other election law experts have actually reached the opposite conclusion,” he said.
“And so I think everyone would agree, though, that this is completely unprecedented, and it raises a lot of novel questions,” Cooksey argued.
The FEC chairman noted that there are several different ways in which he expects the attempted transfer to be challenged, but that the short window of time before Election Day will necessitate that courts be involved.
“There’s a process in which private parties can file complaints with the Federal Election Commission. There’s also a process in which they prospectively ask for advisory opinions. One of the problems with those processes is they can take a lot of time, and we don’t have a lot of time until the election, I think we’re at 106 days out. And so I think there’s going to be a lot of challenges in the courts as well,” Cooksey said.
Cooksey’s predecessor – Democratic FEC Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum — has asserted that Harris is entitled to the campaign funds.
“It’s quite clear, Vice President Harris can continue using the campaign committee and its funds,” Lindenbaum told The Hill Monday.
If Harris does not wind up with the Democratic nomination for president or if she’s deemed ineligible to receive the funds, the money could be transferred to the DNC or a super PAC aligned with the eventual nominee.