Rep. Braun loaned himself $350,000 post-primary and then claimed he hadn’t; only raised $1.4 million in quarter, $1 million less than he claimed
INDIANAPOLIS – Rep. Braun repeatedly lied about not self-funding his campaign in the general election and raising more money than Joe Donnelly in the second quarter, according to his latest FEC report.
Yesterday, the Indy Star debunked several false claims by Rep. Braun, who said before the primary and time and again afterward that he wouldn’t self-fund his campaign in the general election. His campaign made the same statement when announcing their quarterly fundraising two weeks ago, making clear that the $2.5 million it claimed he raised was “without personal contributions or loans.” Yet the Star reported that Rep. Braun made several loans to himself of roughly $350,000 since the primary, according to his latest FEC report. All told, Rep. Braun funneled almost $1 million of his own money into his campaign during the quarter.
As the Star wrote:
Braun announced mid-July a “blockbuster fundraising haul for the 2nd quarter of the year: posting $2.5 million raised with over $1 million cash on hand at quarter close, including nearly $1.5 million raised since the day after the primary, without personal contributions or loans.”
But the report Braun has since filed with the Senate shows nearly $1 million of his $2.5 million was in personal loans. Of that, about $350,000 was loaned after the primary.
Additionally, the Star made clear that Rep. Braun’s “blockbuster fundraising haul” this quarter was actually less than Joe Donnelly’s – despite Rep. Braun’s repeated claims that he’d outraised Joe, and his failure to correct the record when multiple news outlets made the same claim. Discounting his personal loans, Rep. Braun raised only $1,408,747 this quarter, as opposed to $1.9 raised by Joe.
“Rep. Braun lied, repeatedly and obviously,” said Michael Feldman, spokesman for the Indiana Democratic Party. “Pundits can discuss amongst themselves the fact that his fundraising was so lackluster that he needed to pad it with his personal wealth, or that he failed to out-raise Joe Donnelly even as the Vice President and Majority Leader held fundraisers for him. But what matters to Hoosiers is that by claiming he’d no longer self-fund, and then announcing an inflated fundraising total that made the same claim, he lied to them for months.”
###