Congresswoman Sharice Davids will reimburse her campaign almost $800 in clothing expenses from 2018 after Republican challenger Amanda Adkins questioned whether they were legal.
The Adkins campaign on Thursday criticized the clothing expenses for a 2018 debate – $412 from Banana Republic and $375 from White House Black Market – as a violation of a federal law that prohibits campaigns from paying for clothing and other personal expenses.
“With a price tag of nearly $800, it’s a nice outfit, but breaking federal election law is a bad look,” Adkins spokesman Matt Trail said in a statement.
The Adkins campaign’s criticism came days after a complaint was lodged by a former Democratic Party official charging that the challenger circumvented campaign finance laws last year when she started running for office.
“This is a pathetic attempt to distract from the fact that Amanda Adkins violated campaign finance laws by raising an excess of $150,000 in campaign contributions and is now the subject of an FEC complaint,” spokeswoman Johanna Warshaw said in a statement.
Warshaw was alluding to a complaint brought by Andy Sandler – the former Democratic chair for the 3rd District – who accused Adkins of violating campaign finance rules requiring candidates to file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission after raising or spending more than $5,000.
The Kansas City Star reported that Adkins raised $150,000 before filing a statement of candidacy with the FEC in August of 2019.
The Adkins campaign has said it complied with FEC rules while the candidate decided whether to run for office.
The campaign said Adkins didn’t decide to run for office until August 2019 and handled fundraising within the scope of the law.
Warshaw said the clothing expenses from October 2018 were exclusively for campaign events.
“While Amanda Adkins has a multi-million dollar trust fund and a father who has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into a Super PAC to try to purchase his daughter a seat in Congress, Rep. Davids is one of the least wealthy members of Congress and a first-generation college student who put herself through school by working multiple jobs,” Warshaw said in a statement.
“Rep. Davids will promptly reimburse the campaign for this purchase and we’d encourage Amanda Adkins to reimburse the $150,000 in excess contributions she’s taken in this election if she’s so passionate about campaign finance.”
