“You have to go where the money is to raise money,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., told Fox News Digital this week, answering questions about travel paid for by his political committees.
Recent reporting by Politico, citing financial filings, said Gallego’s leadership PAC covered trips to Miami, Saint Barthélemy, Disneyland, Disney World and Chicago. A source familiar with his spending told Politico the senator often used campaign cash to bring his family along and used donor money to pay for babysitting. Fox News Digital reports that it has not cited any FEC finding that the expenses broke campaign finance law.
The Super Bowl
Federal Election Commission records show that a joint fundraising committee Gallego ran with former Rep. Eric Swalwell paid for tickets for Gallego and his wife to the 2023 Super Bowl. Swalwell has since resigned from Congress after several women accused him of sexual assault, according to Fox News Digital. The committee was called the “Swallego Victory Fund.”
Gallego calls the trip a fundraiser. “The Super Bowl was in Arizona, I represent Arizona,” he said. “We threw a Super Bowl fundraiser in Arizona where we raised money for my election in 2023. That’s what you do.”
The event took place with donors at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, 20 days after Gallego launched his Senate bid. An invitation obtained by Politico shows tickets priced at $5,000, plus another $1,000 for a pre-game brunch. The event cost more than $37,000. Each lawmaker received about $8,000, and the joint committee stopped operating after the game.
A Gallego spokesperson told Politico the “tickets were purchased at fair market value” and that “hosting donors and supporters at sporting events in their areas is a common, bipartisan practice.” Gallego made the same point himself. “There’s a lot of people that do fundraisers at golf tournaments, at NASCAR, at IndyCar,” he said. “So this is just the very same thing.”
The Miami trip
PAC money also covered a Miami trip that fell on his wife Sydney’s birthday. The couple stayed at the Loews hotel on Miami Beach, and the expenses topped $9,000.
Gallego said the visit paid off. “We raised about $50,000 in our nine events in Miami,” he said. His spokesperson told Politico the couple “attended several widely attended political events and fundraisers” there. The spokesperson gave no figures and did not address the birthday.
What the rules say
Federal campaign funds generally cannot be converted to personal use. FEC guidance does allow campaign-related travel, meals at fundraising events and childcare costs that arise directly from campaign activity. When a trip mixes personal and campaign purposes, the personal portion may have to be reimbursed.
