RNC Seeks Credit Line, Spends $1.5 Million on Flowers, Limos, Media Consultants

In a new report by Jennifer Van Laar from RedState on the misplaced spending priorities of the RNC, it was revealed that $1.5 million in donor dollars was spent on limos, media consultants, flowers, and office supplies whilst skimping on categories like Get Out The Vote (GOTV), data, and state parties that could actually help win elections.

Chair of the RNC Ronna McDaniel has driven the Committee into a cash shortage, so much so that they have been seeking a new line of credit. Heading into this election year, that’s a major red flag. A new credit line is merely a band-aid “solution” and doesn’t address the issue of overspending or misplaced spending priorities. Regardless of this, the RNC executive board agreed to authorize a credit line of $10 million in its 2024 budget.

Good stewardship of funds is a conservative principle that past Chairs either stuck to or were tossed out.

In 2010, then Chair of the RNC Michael Steele was criticized and removed from his position because donors were angry about what they believed was luxurious spending on private jets, floral arrangements, chauffeur services, and member meetings in expensive tropical locales.

When George W. Bush was in office, frugality was the order of the day in the RNC. Former Chair of the RNC “Karl Rove would b**ch if there were flowers on the tables” and staff holiday parties were catered by Chick-fil-A.

RedState analyzed where the spending was going with part of their analysis being a comparison of spending priorities of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the RNC. Below is a chart displaying the total spending between October 20, 2022 and November 30, 2023.

As seen above, the RNC spends significantly more than the DNC in the categories of office supplies, management consulting, floral arrangements, media booking consultants, and limousines. The DNC spends significantly more than the RNC in the categories of voter file maintenance, GOTV texting, and transfers to state parties. Although the DNC spent more than the RNC did in totality, that is not the issue. The issue is about what the money is being spent on.

According to a request for comment by RedState, RNC spokeswoman Emma Vaughn provided a statement:

“This story took several days of research, albeit sloppy research, to come to fruition yet the RNC was only given 60 minutes to respond. While that’s an improvement from the last time this dishonest and biased reporter wrote a hit piece on the RNC, where she didn’t give us an opportunity to comment until after publication, the disregard for the truth and transparency still oozes through. For example, our team just took less than 5 minutes to poke through the DNC’s expenses, and found $3 million in ‘consulting’ and over $25,000 in beauty expenses. Yet, in RedState’s initial email to us they claimed the DNC spent $0 on beauty expenses and only $100k on consultants. Do better.”

RedState disagrees with the RNC’s assessment stating “There’s one thing that’s abundantly clear after analyzing both committees’ FEC reports: Grassroots activists of all stripes who are interested in financial accountability from their national parties face the difficulty of wading through FEC reports containing hundreds of expense categories and for which there is no consistent, agreed-upon definition used by various campaigns and state and national parties, making it difficult to fully determine what is being spent on a particular effort or activity. Having consistent, agreed-upon definitions for expense categories would make this task more transparent and accessible to all.”

Charlie Kirk, head of the conservative group Turning Point USA wasn’t too pleased with the findings of the report and had van Laar on his talk show to explain what she found:

Political parties don’t exist for fancy soirees, lavish lifestyles or as a means of providing luxury experiences for those running them. Political parties are meant to bring people together to achieve control of the government, develop policies favorable to their interests or the groups that support them, and organize and persuade voters to elect their candidates. In other words, they exist to win elections and their spending priorities should reflect that.

The RNC’s priorities are clearly out of whack. If they desire to win future elections, there needs to be a realignment with their conservative roots of stewardship and a restoration of due respect to their donors. If the DNC can prioritize their spending towards the goal of winning elections, surely the RNC can too.

Click HERE for a full breakdown of the RNC’s expenditures.

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