George Santos, the New York Republican from Long Island facing federal criminal charges, raised about $179,000 for his re-election campaign from April through June.
Now, that’s a pretty modest sum, and he used most of it to pay back the money he had lent to his past congressional campaigns. But he also used $85,000 of the money on May 30th to repay himself.
This is not the first time Santos has used money like this. He had previously reported giving his own campaign over $700,000 in personal loans.
Much of the fundraising money came from an unorthodox network of about 180 donors scattered across the country, with most of them not from his district. Filings with the FEC reveal it came after his indictment.
Some said they gave as a joke, but others sought to reward Santos’s stalwart conservatism on domestic and foreign policy.
While Santos struggles financially, one of the Democratic candidates for his seat, Zak Malamed, announced that he had taken in $417,000 in just the first six weeks of his campaign, almost tripling Santos’ total. Kellen Curry, a Republican primary challenger, reportedly raised more than $200,000 during the same period.
