SALT LAKE CITY — Tuesday was the runoff U.S. Senate election in Georgia, and candidates across the country, including here in Utah, have been helping fundraise for that race — but, they have also been keeping some of those donations.
“This has been going on for just about as long as you’ve been able to raise money for campaigns online,” explained Kal Munis, an assistant professor of political science at Utah Valley University.
Utahns might have received an email from Sen. Mike Lee’s campaign, asking them to donate to the Republican candidate for senator in Georgia, Herschel Walker.
Those emails link to a donation page. But some might not realize that the whole amount is not going to Walker's campaign, but a portion of it goes to the politician who sent out the email — in this case, Lee. Donors can go in and manually edit that allocation, however.
“So much of campaign strategy is nationalized,” said Munis. “You tend to see many of the same sorts of tactics, particularly when it comes to fundraising. Those are pretty standard throughout the country.”
Munis added that this is a pretty common way of raising funds, and it happens nationally on both sides of the political aisle.
“The Democratic senatorial campaign committee was raising funds for Raphael Warnock — the Democratic candidate — but were also keeping 50% of those funds,” said Munis.
In this case, Lee and Walker would split the funds 50-50, but a donor might not know where their money is actually going without taking a harder look.
“I think it’s totally fair to say that this is a little deceptive,” said Munis. “When Mike Lee or any politician is saying, 'Hey, our Republican colleague over here needs our help, step up and donate now,' many people when they click that button, we can presume are thinking, 'Well, yeah, I want to help, I want to send money to that candidate.' Most people aren’t aware that a substantial portion of their money, half or some cases more, might be going to a different place.”
FOX 13 News reached out to Lee’s campaign, and they sent a statement saying: “Senator Lee is doing everything he can to push back on the failing policies of President Biden. That includes raising money for the runoff election in Georgia using standard list share agreements utilized by both political parties.”
Jay Goodliffe, who chairs the department of political science at Brigham Young University, said these arrangements usually benefit both sides.
“That’s why someone like Mike Lee would want to get involved," Goodliffe said. "Because he wants to raise money, and the fundraisers are thinking, 'How can we get our donors interested?' So Herschel Walker is one of the ways to get people interested. So what Herschel Walker gets out of it is of course access to donors and money that he otherwise would not have.”
Goodliffe added that this split donation process won’t be going away anytime soon, so it’s important for donors to be aware.
“It’s great for citizens to participate in democracy this way by supporting the candidates, but they need to make sure they’re actually supporting the candidates they want to support, not their friends," he said.
