On his way out, former U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson spent big from campaign account

Two weeks later, Ferguson dipped back into his campaign account to purchase tickets to the Luck Reunion music and arts festival at country superstar Willie Nelson’s ranch in Spicewood, Texas. The $361 charge was enough to cover two tickets.

Around that same time as the music festival outside of Austin, reports also show Ferguson reserved rooms at two high-end hotels nearby, purchased catering at a music-focused event hall and reserved limousine services to the tune of at least $4,000.

It’s difficult to determine from the reports alone how these expenses were related to one another and whether they were for one trip or multiple visits. That is one of the shortfalls of current federal campaign finance regulations and underscores the loose rules that govern how elected federal officials can spend donor dollars.

Ferguson’s campaign finance report is full of spending that leads to more questions, yet he and his representatives provided few details beyond what is publicly available.

Generally speaking, Ferguson’s team said that he kept up a busy schedule traveling to political events and supporting other candidates for public office.

Shortly after Ferguson’s term in the U.S. House ended at the end of 2024, the Atlanta-based Alston & Byrd law firm announced that he was the newest member of its lobbying team. The company’s pitch to potential clients references its newest associate by name.

“We offer decades of experience in the intricacies of how Washington makes policy and deliver you the highest level of service and results,” the site says. “Our team includes former Rep. Drew Ferguson, who served on the Committee on Ways and Means and the House Budget Committee and was chief deputy whip for House Republicans from 2018 to 2022.”

‘Very normal expenditures’

Ferguson’s campaign account is still active, although nearly all of the roughly $9 million he raised throughout his career in Washington has been spent.

Following questions from the AJC, Ferguson on Thursday filed paperwork to convert his account into a political action committee that could be used to support multiple candidates.

Federal laws give candidates and elected officials broad leeway to use campaign donations to pay for travel and entertainment costs as long as they report these expenditures were connected to campaigning for themselves or others or to fulfill their official duties as officeholders. For members of Congress, it gives them another pot of money to pull from in addition to the taxpayer dollars they are allocated for traveling to and from Washington and other expenses related to their duties in Washington.

Ferguson’s reports reflect a spending level similar to candidates running for reelection, even though he was not. In fact, some of his spending is more extravagant then colleagues who planned to stay in Congress.

U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, who occupies a seat south of Ferguson’s and is the longest-serving Georgia Republican in Congress, had operating expenses of $568,142 during the 2024 cycle when he was elected to an eighth term. Ferguson during that same two-year period spent $1.1 million before exiting public office.

Other Republicans who, like Ferguson, retired at the end of 2024 after representing districts in swing states also spent much less. Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko reported $465,020 in operating expenditures and Florida Rep. Bill Posey spent $519,782.

One lawmaker whose spending matched Ferguson’s was North Carolina’s Patrick McHenry, who was the chair of the powerful House Financial Services Committee and for 22 days served as acting House speaker after Kevin McCarthy was ousted. McHenry, who also did not run for reelection in 2024, spent $1.3 million during the two-year cycle.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

During the 13 months after he announced he was no longer seeking reelection, Ferguson spent more than $76,000 on campaign strategy and fundraising consultants.

That’s on top of the trips, pricey meals and flights — including $8,000 in airfare charges in November and December 2024 during his final weeks in office — that show up on Ferguson’s disclosures.

The Republican congressman continued to tap into his campaign war chest in much the same manner he had when he held a position in House GOP leadership and was seen as a rising star. Despite being the only member of Georgia’s U.S. House delegation not on the ballot in 2024, Ferguson outspent almost a third of his colleagues in the months after his retirement announcement, based on operating expenditures from each Georgia member’s campaign committee.

Ferguson’s former chief of staff, Bobby Saparow, said these expenses represent the busy calendar of a veteran lawmaker who frequently traveled to events sponsored by colleagues and political organizations.

“I’m looking at very normal expenditures,” Saparow said in response to questions from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about some of the line items in Ferguson’s reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Compared to another Georgia Republican who also stepped away from his seat in Congress, Ferguson was a much bigger spender of campaign funds. U.S. Rep. Tom Graves announced in December 2019 that his term in office would be his last. Like with Ferguson, that announcement came with roughly a year left in his term.

During that lame-duck period, Graves spent roughly $217,000 in campaign funds on operating expenditures. In the months after his announcement, Ferguson spent about $375,000, which is about 75% more.

While Graves also continued to spend on consultants, high-end restaurants and travel in the year after his retirement announcement, it was nowhere near the pace of Ferguson.

Little federal enforcement

Federal Election Commission regulations and House ethics rules allow wide leeway for how members of Congress use the money supporters donate to their campaigns.

They can spend it on expenses tied to campaigning, such as travel, hiring staff and events. But lawmakers can also use campaign funds to pay for expenses tied to their official duties, such as attending meetings and making public appearances.

Retiring lawmakers are also allowed to use campaign dollars to cover costs associated with winding down their political careers or to support other politicians.

All of these expenditures are listed on campaign finance reports filed with the FEC and include the date, amount and a brief description of every expense. But lawmakers and candidates are not required to provide details or justifications for how they spend donors’ dollars.

The one spending limitation that has been enforced repeatedly over the years, and which has landed some elected officials in hot water, is that campaign donations are not allowed to be used for expenses that are personal in nature. The FEC and the U.S. House define this as any expense lawmakers would incur regardless of their public office.

But there is little oversight and lax enforcement of the rules.

That has led more candidates and elected officials to take greater liberties, said Stuart McPhail, director of campaign finance litigation for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog organization. McPhail was not familiar with Ferguson’s records and was speaking generally about concerns he has raised in recent years.

Some of these expenditures are “sometimes flatly, clearly against the law, or, at the very least, abusing these kind of gray areas,” McPhail said.

Members of Congress earn a $174,000 annual salary and receive a taxpayer-funded Members’ Representational Allowance that allows them to hire staff and covers their travel and office expenses in their districts. Campaign funds can cover additional travel and security costs connected to official and political activities.

Ferguson’s report reflects a great deal of travel during his final months in office, plus additional spending in Washington even after his term as a lawmaker ended.

At least one example exists of an expense Ferguson’s team said was an improper use of campaign funds. In December, he purchased a pair of tickets to the Georgia State Society’s Peachtree Ball that coincided with President Donald Trump’s second inauguration.

Ferguson, whose term in Congress ended Dec. 31, attended the Jan. 19 affair at Union Station. By then, he was a private citizen and working at Alston & Bird. While Ferguson can’t lobby Congress directly for a year, he can advise clients on issues and help them with strategy.

Saparow said the tickets should have been purchased through Point Action PAC, a leadership committee controlled by Ferguson that has wider leeway in how dollars are spent. The $527 has been reimbursed, Saparow said.

A rising star bows out

Ferguson, a dentist by trade and the former mayor of West Point, was among the rank-and-file House members enjoying the Republican trifecta in the White House, U.S. House and Senate when he took office in 2017.

He received a major boost at the end of his first term when then-House GOP Whip Steve Scalise named him his chief deputy. Records show that money flowing in and out of Ferguson’s campaign coffers rose drastically during the 2019-2020 election cycle, and his campaign operating expenses increased from $1 million to $1.5 million even though he was an incumbent in a safe GOP seat.

His campaign spending rose even higher during the 2021-2022 cycle to $2.4 million as Ferguson worked to increase his profile in hopes of rising in the ranks of Republican leadership.

Ferguson made his move shortly after the November 2022 election by entering the race for GOP whip to replace Scalise, who had been elevated to majority leader. But his bid ended with a last-place finish in a three-way race.

Ferguson later announced he wouldn’t see reelection, but his travel and fundraising schedule continued.

Ferguson had been holding campaign events at the Deer Valley ski resort in Utah since 2019, shortly after becoming Scalise’s chief deputy. Total spending over the years was $155,000, but nearly 20% of that came from the single expense in March 2024.

That $27,000 line item for “event lodging and catering” indicates that Ferguson hosted some type of event or fundraiser at the slope-side resort. Saparow and Tyler Daniel, a former top aide to Scalise who was asked to field some of the AJC’s questions, declined to provide details.

Brett Kappel, an attorney in Washington and expert on campaign finance, said expenditures related to travel and entertainment often comprise the basis of complaints to the FEC or House Ethics Committee. But rarely is there a determination that a violation occurred.

“Assuming that there’s no legitimate campaign reason for these activities, then it would only be legal if they were part of his official duties,” Kappel said of Ferguson. “The FEC gives them a lot of latitude in defining what are considered official duties.”

There have been members of Congress in recent years who have faced complaints about their use of campaign dollars, and some have been found to have violated the law. None is more notorious that former U.S. Rep. George Santos.

The New York Republican was found guilty both of lying about his qualifications and misusing donor dollars on personal expenses, including Botox treatments, trips to casinos and designer clothes. As part of a plea deal, he agreed to pay nearly $375,000 in restitution and forfeit $205,000 in assets. He is awaiting sentencing in April and is expected to spend at least two years in prison.

U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., was sentenced to 11 months in prison in 2020 after admitting to misusing $250,000 in campaign funds by claiming the expenditures were for official business while actually spending the money on vacations and other purchases for his wife and family.

McPhail’s organization, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, recently filed a complaint against former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an independent from Arizona, raising questions about her spending on foreign trips during her final three months in office. Sinema, like Ferguson, decided against seeking reelection in 2024.

The complaint says Sinema’s campaign spent about $70,000 on lodging during the final quarter of 2023, including at high-end hotel in Saudi Arabia. She also spent more $4,000 on car services with companies based in London and Paris.

Kappel said the trips appeared to be excessive for a senator winding down her time in office.

“She announced she wasn’t running for reelection in, like, early 2024, and then for the remainder of the time that she was in office, she spent an extraordinary amount of money on travel all around the world,” he said. “And not on things that would be considered bona fide campaign expenses.”

Georgia U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop was recently cleared of wrongdoing after a five-year investigation of his campaign spending. The House Ethics Committee in 2020 released a report that included examples of the Albany Democrat’s campaign accounts being used at two exclusive golf courses for membership fees and meals, and that he and his wife had also used campaign funds on gas for personal vehicles.

In December 2024, the committee announced that its investigation was closed and that it found no evidence Bishop had intentionally misused campaign funds. He and three other lawmakers received a written report detailing the proper way to use and document campaign spending and were warned to tighten up their recordkeeping.

Bishop, who remains in office and is the longest-serving member of Georgia’s delegation, said he is implementing a series of corrective measures that included an audit of his campaign spending, reimbursing disputed expenses and hiring a new campaign treasurer.

McPhail said questions about campaign spending have become more common in recent years and coincides with a perception that the FEC, mired in partisan conflicts, is mostly ineffective. Only the lowest-hanging fruit, like candidates who missed deadlines in filing reports, tend to be cited for violations.

“If there is anything more than that … they just don’t enforce the law,” he said.