As president Joe Biden If she decides to step aside before the 2024 race, Vice President Kamala Harris would have first dibs on the tens of millions of dollars in his campaign funds.
Biden has given no indication he will end his reelection bid after a faltering debate performance last week. But it’s a scenario that was discussed during a tense phone call between campaign staff and donors on Sunday.
Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said on the call that if the president withdraws — which she said he has no plans to do — Harris would have control over the bulk of the money in their campaign account, which stood at $91.2 million as of May 31.
That seems to be true, say some campaign finance experts, but probably only if she becomes the Democratic presidential nominee.
“This has a unique twist because Harris is still part of the campaign and was considered part of the campaign from the beginning,” said Kenneth Gross, a senior political legal adviser at Akin Gump and former deputy general counsel for the Federal Election Commission.
Harris’ name appears on FEC filings for both Biden’s candidacy statement and his campaign account’s organizational statement, meaning she could likely use the funds if she moves forward with the campaign. Campaign finance law also says that a campaign committee appointed by a presidential candidate can be used by the party’s vice presidential nominee.
“Both candidates are on the bill,” Gross said. “And I would think that if she were to run for president, she would be able to use the money. She would be the only one who could do that.”
The Campaign Legal Center’s campaign finance team also determined that Harris would have access to the money in the account if she succeeded Biden as the party’s presidential nominee.
But they noted via email that Harris would only have access to those funds if she were at the top of the ticket. In other words, if she remained the vice presidential nominee and the party chose another presidential candidate, that would be a different campaign.
Gross said he wasn’t sure Harris would have access to the funds if she remained the party’s vice presidential nominee without Biden.
“That’s such a unique scenario, I would think the campaign would want to seek an FEC opinion on that question,” he said.
Claire Rajan, a former FEC attorney and head of Allen & Overy’s political law practice, also agreed that Harris would likely have access to the funds as the party’s presidential candidate. But she doubted she would be able to do so as another president’s running mate.
If Harris were not the nominee in this scenario, the Campaign Legal Center’s campaign finance team noted that Biden’s campaign money could be converted into a political action committee. But a PAC can only make a small maximum donation of $3,300 per election to another candidate. The Biden campaign could also reimburse donors for their contributions, who could then donate to a new candidate.
Rajan and Gross also noted that if Biden steps aside, the funds could be transferred to a charity or super PAC that would not be able to coordinate with the campaign. The funds could also be transferred to the national party.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
