Mike Pence will get $720,000 of taxpayer funds for his failed presidential campaign

Former Vice President Mike Pence is set to receive a total of $717,373 from taxpayer funds — certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) — for his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination last year.

The FEC had previously certified a $100,000 payment in federal funds for Pence’s campaign in May, and has today confirmed that it will authorize an additional $617,373. An FEC representative confirmed that this number could still increase.

According to OpenSecrets, the Pence campaign had amassed a debt of $1.3 million as of May this year.

The funds are matched through federal taxpayer money, authorised by the FEC and paid by the US Treasury, and comes from the $3 collected on individual income tax returns.

This is part of the federal matching funds program, which allows presidential candidates to “match” their campaign costs for the primaries, under certain conditions.

The candidate’s campaign must have raised at least $100,000, of which $5,000 must be collected in at least 20 different states, in amounts no greater than $250 per individual. There are also other FEC restrictions regarding strict spending limits.

However, no major presidential candidate has used this scheme since Barack Obama opted out in 2008, so it may be somewhat surprising that Pence has chosen to recover taxpayer funds for a primary campaign which had little chance at success.

This year, the only other candidate who has been declared eligible for the scheme is Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who was also eligible in her previous 2012 and 2016 campaigns.

Pence’s short-lived campaign only lasted between June and October 2023, before he publicly announced he would be pulling out of the primary race.

But, months after his campaign ended, Pence’s campaign committee has retroactively applied for the public campaign finance matching program, under which two sets of taxpayer funding have now been authorized.

Though the OGC has determined that funding will be eligible for campaign expenses up to October 28, 2023, Pence’s team argued that he remained a candidate in the race as late as December 28.

Despite this, the Office of General Counsel said in application documents that it had “found little evidence that would indicate Mr. Pence is actively conducting his campaign.”

“OGC is not aware of a public appearance in which Mr. Pence announced his candidacy was active or ongoing in the two months after publicly announcing the suspension of his campaign,” the counsel added.