A little over a year ago, a RedState exclusive investigation into spending at the Republican National Committee revealed that millions of donor dollars were spent on things like floral arrangements, private jets, limousines, tickets to Broadway shows, high-end retail stores, and more. 

As I wrote then, frugality has long been a conservative principle, even at the RNC.

Back in 2010, RNC Chair Michael Steele was heavily criticized and eventually lost his position because donors were angry about what they believed was luxurious spending on private jets, floral arrangements, chauffeur services, and member meetings in expensive tropical locales. Donors were used to frugality from the RNC under the George W. Bush administration, when “Karl Rove would bitch if there were flowers on the tables” and staff holiday parties were catered by Chick-fil-A.

In light of reports that the RNC had a cash shortage heading into a critical election year (which was described as a "revenue problem") and that the RNC executive board voted to authorize a $10 million line of credit in its 2024 budget, RedState analyzed expenditures recorded by the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) since the December 2022 story to see where the money is going. 

In addition, several categories of RNC spending were compared to spending by the Democratic National Committee during the same time frame. The chart below shows total spending and spending in these categories by the RNC and the DNC between October 20, 2022 and November 30, 2023.

As reflected above, the RNC spends significantly more than the DNC in the categories of office supplies, management consulting, floral arrangements, media booking consultants, and limousines. The DNC spends significantly more than the RNC in the categories of voter file maintenance, GOTV texting, and transfers to state parties. (NOTE: Transfers to the NRCC and NRSC are included in the $13,800,200 total, and transfers to the DCCC are include in the DNC's total.) The DNC spent more than the RNC did overall. Still, the differences in the categories just mentioned are significant even if looking at them on a percentage-of-total-spending basis, and the categories the DNC invested in are the categories that matter when it comes to winning elections.

An RNC insider told RedState that the party supports GOTV texting efforts and voter file maintenance efforts through its transfers to state parties, and also supports voter file maintenance nationwide through its vendor Data Trust. Data Trust was paid $1,000,000 in this time frame, which should be taken into consideration, but the DNC also transferred $10,000,000 more to state/affiliated parties than the RNC did.

Management Consulting

Over these 13 months, the RNC spent an average of $83,000 a month on management consulting. One firm, BMO Consulting, which received $97,500, is owned by Benjamin Ottenhoff, who is also the treasurer for WinRed. Another, The Cairncross Group, is helmed by Sean Cairncross, who was RNC's COO under Reince Priebus. Cairncross received $271,409, more than any RNC employee except Ronna McDaniel.

Two firms, Jackson Consulting Group, LLC, and The Gav Group, provide traditional management consulting (seminars, coaching); the $170,000 total paid to those two vendors is more than what the DNC spent for the same category but in the same ballpark.

An RNC spokesperson told RedState that both DCP Data Consulting and Red Spark Strategy provide data consulting, not management consulting as listed on the RNC's FEC filings. A total of $195,000 was paid to those two vendors.

According to corporate filings, Right Coast Strategies is owned by Trump staffer Susie Wiles; the $45,000 payment was made in October 2022.

Office Supplies

In July 2023, an OPI study found that businesses with 200 employees or more spend an average of $27-32/month per employee on office supplies. The RNC had an average of 213 employees a month during this time frame, so an office supply expenditure of $86,265 would be in line with industry standards. However, nearly $300,000 in expenses were categorized by the RNC as office supplies:

• $134,913 to traditional office supply vendors (Guernsey, Staples, Office Max, Amazon Capital Services)
• $12,417 to tech vendors such as Apple
• $13,261 to grocery stores and big box stores (Target/Wal-Mart)
• $2,453 to warehouse stores (e.g. Costco)

In addition to the amounts already spent above, $60,587.72 went to food/beverages/coffee vendors:

• $43,729.22 to Instacart
• $10,560.60 to Ready Refresh (water coolers/bottled water)
• $175.40 to Nespresso
• $4,535.18 to Commonwealth Joe Coffee
• $1,762.72 to New Congressional Liquors & Deli

In addition, $10,776.34 was paid to clothing retailers, decor boutiques, and gift baskets/gift card establishments. Examples:

• CMT Art – watercolor notecards, paintings ($3,139.40)
• Burke Décor ($234)
• Furbish Studio – custom needlepoint pillows approx. $100/ea ($432.95)
• Carhartt, Rocky Brands, Dungarees ($3.014.12)
• Boxfox gift basket – Voluspa candles, etc. ($91.16)
• Buy-A-Tab – gift card for restaurants etc ($330)

Embroidered pillows available on the Furbish Studios website

Media Consultants

A total of $813,000 was paid to several companies to provide "Media Services/Consulting" to the RNC; of those, two companies were notable. One company, Pearson Unlimited, LLC, is owned by RNC Youth Advisory Committee co-chair C.J. Pearson. Pearson Unlimited was paid $26,341 between June and November 2023 for such consulting. The other, Colony Group Media, is owned by Johanna Persing, who was the RNC’s Deputy Communications Director, Media Affairs until March 2023 and was paid a salary of $75,000 a year. Colony Group Media is now being paid $12,000 a month to provide Media Services Consulting to the RNC, or $144,000 a year. In her LinkedIn profile, she lists herself as a Media Booking Consultant and describes herself thusly:

Communications leader with over a decade experience in senior roles in political campaigns and Congress, currently serving as Deputy Communications Director for the Republican National Committee, overseeing the most robust media affairs and surrogate booking operation in Republican Party history.

Limousines

The amount RedState reported as limousines is a subset of the "Transportation Services" category of the RNC's FEC report. That category reports $308,798.92 in expenses. Of that, about $175 goes to cab/taxi services and about $10,000 goes to charter bus companies. The remainder of the companies either provide both charter bus/van and limousine service or only limousine service. After speaking to RNC committee members and large donors regarding RNC events and donor retreats held during the time period, we identified another $35,000 in expenses from that category that looked to be for transportation during those events. That leaves $263,125 in transportation services expenses to companies that provide chauffeured transportation.

According to a memo sent to RNC committee members in advance of this week's membership meeting that was obtained by RedState:

The RNC utilizes transportation companies to shuttle members and donors from venue sites during our biannual meetings (i.e. when members took shuttles from the debate in Milwaukee to the offsite event afterwards and back to the hotel) and donor events. The RNC will also use transportation companies when Ubers or taxis are not possible. Often, these companies have the word “limo” in their name, but rest assured, no RNC staffer, officer, or RNC event is utilizing actual limousines – these expenses are for busses, regular cars, and SUVs. 

However, at least a few of these companies only have limousines (whether sedan or stretch SUVs) in their fleet. For example, Amalias Limousine in Burbank, California says their fleet consists of H2 Hummer stretch, Lincoln Town Car, Chrysler 300 Stretch, Lincoln Navigators, and Cadillac Escalades.

In response to RedState's first request for comment, RNC spokeswoman Emma Vaughn provided a statement. While we disagree with its assessment, we're publishing it in its entirety.

“This story took several days of research, albeit sloppy research, to come to fruition yet the RNC was only given 60 minutes to respond. While that’s an improvement from the last time this dishonest and biased reporter wrote a hit piece on the RNC, where she didn’t give us an opportunity to comment until after publication, the disregard for the truth and transparency still oozes through. For example, our team just took less than 5 minutes to poke through the DNC’s expenses, and found $3 million in ‘consulting’ and over $25,000 in beauty expenses. Yet, in RedState’s initial email to us they claimed the DNC spent $0 on beauty expenses and only $100k on consultants. Do better.”

There's one thing that's abundantly clear after analyzing both committees' FEC reports: Grassroots activists of all stripes who are interested in financial accountability from their national parties face the difficulty of wading through FEC reports containing hundreds of expense categories and for which there is no consistent, agreed-upon definition used by various campaigns and state and national parties, making it difficult to fully determine what is being spent on a particular effort or activity. Having consistent, agreed-upon definitions for expense categories would make this task more transparent and accessible to all.