Press "Enter" to skip to content

Kennedy Campaign Expands Victory Fund with Additional Party Affiliates

The Kennedy campaign announced on Wednesday that it has added several more parties to the Kennedy Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee initially established between the campaign and the Libertarian National Committee last month.

Originally announced in late July, the Kennedy Victory Fund was described as a “historic collaboration” with the Libertarian National Committee. The fund’s website also indicated that the Reform Party of Florida was involved in the effort. In forming the committee, individuals could donate up to $41,300, taking advantage of specific FEC laws that apply to national party committees. Additionally, the campaign stated that any state party committee meeting particular FEC requirements could join the Kennedy Victory Fund, thereby increasing donation capacity by an additional $10,000 per individual on top of what was initially announced.

In a press release on Wednesday, the Kennedy campaign revealed that it has now finalized similar agreements with the American Independent Party of California, the Libertarian Party of Florida, and the Libertarian Party of Colorado to join the Kennedy Victory Fund. As a result, the maximum donation limit to the fund has increased to $77,900 per individual.

“Individuals can now donate up to $77,900 towards supporting Kennedy, nearly 12 times the campaign contribution limit of $6,600,” the release stated.

An alleged leak of the contract discussed on the LNC business list suggests that the Kennedy Victory Fund operates under a specific structure where the first $6,600 from each donation goes directly to the Kennedy campaign. The LNC receives the next $41,300, of which 90% is placed into a new bank account shared with the Kennedy campaign for coordinated spending, while the LNC retains the remaining 10%. State affiliates that joined the fund then receive $10,000, with 90% also allocated for coordinated spending and the remaining 10% kept by the affiliate.

Early last month, the Libertarian Party of Colorado announced its support for Kennedy over Libertarian Party nominee Chase Oliver, though it was unsuccessful in placing Kennedy on the Colorado state ballot. In contrast, Kennedy secured the nomination of the American Independent Party of California at their state convention in April, along with state ballot access. Independent Political Report has reached out to the Libertarian Party of Florida for further information regarding when it voted to join the coalition, following a comment made by LNC Region 2 Alternate and Florida Libertarian Party Vice Chair Matt Johnson, who claimed that the decision was not voted upon by the party’s Executive Committee.

9 Comments

  1. Jim August 14, 2024

    RFK might just consider it good publicity (it paints him as a coalition builder) and a way to win votes from Libertarians, the Florida Reform Party, and the California AIP.

    McArdle clearly wants the Democrats to lose and thinks helping RFK will help Trump beat them. She also likes RFK’s stance on vaccines, and is desperate for money.

  2. George Phillies August 14, 2024

    The scheme, which was also used by one of the Johnson campaigns, is perfectly legal as described, and in effect allows a donor to contribute far more than $3300 to use of the RFK campaign. For the Libertarian National Committee, which is supposed to be supporting our party’s candidates, and here is funding one of our opponents, the arrangement would possible be described by some critics as an act of political treason by LNC traitors to our party. Others would say that the description is a bit overwrought.

  3. Curious August 13, 2024

    Given the availability of the Carey committee option, which I forgot about tbh, I’m even more curious as to why an agreement like this was allegedly needed. Anyone have a logical and non nefarious explanation? I’m not thinking of one at the moment, but maybe there’s something I haven’t considered yet?

  4. Curious August 13, 2024

    So then why did the Kennedy campaign throw out and redo ballot access petitions which were paid for by that Pac? Epic mismanagement. Money can only cover up for incompetence up to a point. The Kennedy campaign appears to be very incompetent, which may be hidden at first by the fact that they’ve had way more money than most non duopoly campaigns for ballot access.

    That makes the libertarians a partner in a con game to bilk delusional donors. I wonder if they are contributing their own donor/member lists to this? For those of you on their fundraising lists, how much are you being hit up for this joint fundraising scheme? Have you would up on Kennedy fundraising lists with no other explanation for how you got there than that you are on lp fundraising lists?

  5. Jim August 13, 2024

    American Values PAC did not show up in a search for Super PACs supporting Kennedy because Open Secrets classifies it as a Carey Committee.

    The definition offered is: A Carey committee is a hybrid political action committee that is not affiliated with a candidate and has the ability to operate both as a traditional PAC, contributing funds to a candidate’s committee, and as a super PAC, which makes independent expenditures. To do so, Carey committees must have a separate bank account for each purpose. The committee can collect unlimited contributions from almost any source for its independent expenditure account, but may not use those funds for its traditional PAC contributions.

  6. Andy August 12, 2024

    American Values 2024 PAC supports RFK Jr. and they have raised and spent way more than $600,000.

  7. Jim August 12, 2024

    Joe – True. A Super PAC could raise unlimted money and spend it supporting RFK. It just couldn’t coordinate with the RFK campaign. According to Open Secrets, there are six Super PACs which support Kennedy (although one seems to only support Kennedy with the intention of hurting Biden and getting Trump elected.) Two of them have raised and spent nothing, and one has raised only $2,500. The other three have raised nearly $600,000 total. But, they haven’t spent a dime. At least, according to Open Secrets. I don’t know how accurate that is.

  8. Joe Wendt August 11, 2024

    This Committee makes no sense. If donorsvwanted to make a $40000 or $70000 donation, there are easier ways to do that. So, this Committee has some other purpose, and it doesn’t seem legit.

  9. Nuña August 9, 2024

    It’s a good deal for every party involved. Those LNC members and Reform Party “activists” seeking to renege on it, clearly don’t have the best interests of their party at heart.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

five × four =

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.