As spring turned to summer, Karoline Leavitt’s 2022 congressional campaign committee failed to pay off a penny of the $326,370.50 it owes across more than 100 creditors, according to a new disclosure filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Karoline for Congress raised no money during April, May or June to help retire the debt, the disclosure indicates.
The situation underscores how even the most high-profile political figures in the country sometimes leave their supporters and vendors high, dry and with little recourse if their campaigns hit financial shoals.
Much of the campaign’s debt stems from illegal and excessive contributions that it accepted several years ago but hasn’t returned to donors. Leavitt’s committee reported no cash on hand as of June 30 and long ago spent excessive contributions it accepted.
Dozens of individual donors are owed refunds, including former New Hampshire Gov. Craig Benson and former New Hampshire Senate Majority Leader Robert Clegg Jr., who died in 2023.
Other creditors include campaign vendors, such as Missouri-based consultant Axiom Strategies ($46,747), Missouri-based polling firm Remington Research Group ($41,000) and Washington, D.C.-based fundraising firm Fundraising Inc. ($12,815).
In January, Leavitt’s congressional committee amended 17 campaign finance reports to account for previously unreported campaign contributions that exceeded federal limits, NOTUS reported at the time. In April, the Karoline for Congress committee did refund a handful of donors who had contributed more money than legally allowed, including Leavitt’s parents.
The White House referred OpenSecrets to the Karoline for Congress committee. Rob Phillips of AxCapital, who serves as the committee’s treasurer, did not respond to requests for comment.
A source close to Leavitt, who spoke to OpenSecrets on condition of anonymity, underscored that Leavitt doesn’t personally owe anyone money and that her congressional campaign, which is being audited by the FEC, is “working with the FEC through the audit and that process is ongoing, hence the outstanding ‘debt.’”
In November 2022, the Democrat-aligned political action committee End Citizens United filed an FEC complaint against Leavitt’s committee, alleging that it violated campaign finance law by accepting contributions that exceeded federal limits. But more than two and a half years on, the independent, bipartisan body has not ruled on the case against Karoline for Congress.
Nor will the FEC rule anytime soon because since May the agency has lacked the minimum number of commissioners — four — to conduct high-level business, such as formalizing investigations, approving audit recommendations and issuing civil penalties. The Department of Justice could theoretically involve itself, although it’s highly unlikely that the department, led by Trump-appointed Attorney General Pam Bondi, would investigate a political committee tied to Trump’s White House press secretary.
Trump alone may nominate new FEC commissioners, whom the U.S. Senate must then confirm. But Trump, NOTUS reported earlier this month, has yet to send any nominees to the Senate despite congressional leaders recommending three experienced candidates for the president’s consideration.
“Cases like this send a clear message: If you break campaign finance laws, nothing will happen to you,” End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller told OpenSecrets. “It’s open season for corrupt leaders who want to game the system and get away with it.”
In 2022, Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) defeated Leavitt by about 8 percentage points to retain the state’s 1st District seat. Leavitt, then 25 years old, reached the general election by scoring an upset victory in a Republican primary.
Had Leavitt won the general election, she would have become the youngest woman ever to serve in the U.S. House.
Leavitt this year did earn a different superlative: youngest White House press secretary. She’s since become one of the most recognizable members of the Trump administration, conducting frequent — and often animated — press briefings.
Trump described Leavitt as a “smart,” “tough” and “highly effective communicator” upon announcing her as his White House press secretary.
Undying campaign debt
By law, federal political candidates are not personally liable for their committees’ campaign debt.
For a candidate such as Leavitt whose campaign committee goes broke after losing an election, their options for making creditors whole are limited.
Foremost, the candidate may personally contribute money to their campaign committee, which in turn may pay people and companies owed money. But federal records indicate that this is rare.
The committee itself may also attempt to raise money from new donors in an attempt to retire old debts, although few would-be contributors are interested in giving cash to a failed campaign.
Some high-profile candidates saddled with debt get creative.
Democrat Hillary Clinton, for one, paid down $22.5 million in campaign debt from her 2008 campaign through a multi-pronged approach that included selling leftover campaign trinkets, offering face time President Bill Clinton and renting the personal information of her campaign supporters to other Democrats and private data brokers. Clinton’s 2008 committee paid off its debts by 2013 — just in time for Clinton to announce another White House run in the 2016 election cycle.
Democrat Kamala Harris’ ill-fated 2020 presidential primary campaign racked up more than $1 million in debt.
But Harris’ old campaign got a boost after becoming Joe Biden’s running mate, with the Biden-Harris campaign directing donors to pay off Harris campaign debt. Biden and Harris also leveraged an obscure 2010 FEC ruling that states: “The principal campaign committee for a presidential ticket may transfer general election funds to retire debts from the vice presidential nominee’s presidential primary campaign.” Biden’s own also-ran presidential campaign from 2008 prompted this ruling after Biden became Barack Obama’s running mate.
But the reigning king of campaign debt remains Republican Newt Gingrich, whose failed 2012 presidential campaign still owes dozens of creditors a combined $4.63 million as of June 30, according to FEC records.
Verizon, FedEx, Comcast, the social media company X, former Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) and former presidential candidate Herman Cain, who died in 2020, are among the creditors that the Newt 2012 committee never paid.
Other former presidential campaigns that still owe massive amounts of debt include the committees of Democrat Al Sharpton (2004), Republican Rick Santorum (both from 2012 and 2016) and Mike Pence (2024).
The presidential committee of Sharpton, the civil rights leader and MSNBC mainstay, stopped bothering to file still-mandatory reports with the FEC this year. This earned Sharpton 2004 a strongly worded letter from the campaign finance enforcement and regulation agency earlier this year before the agency entered a now three-month-long period of de facto shutdown.
As of Dec. 31, Sharpton 2024 reported owing creditors nearly $926,000, with the U.S. Treasury, United Parcel Service and Sharpton himself among the campaign’s lingering creditors.
Dave Levinthal is a Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist. He served as OpenSecrets’ editorial and communications director from 2009 to 2011.
