Acampaign watchdog group has accused former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of illegally spending more than $700,000 in campaign cash on personal expenses, including on luxury hotel rooms, concert tickets and fancy meals.
In its complaint with the Federal Elections Commission, Campaign Legal Center says Sinema spent the money in 2025, after she left the U.S. Senate, in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act’s prohibition on personal use of campaign funds.
“Ms. Sinema converted over $700,000 in campaign funds to personal use during 2025, after leaving the Senate, by spending it on travel, lodging, meals, staff salaries, and other expenses that were unrelated to any campaign or political activity,” Campaign Legal Center wrote in its complaint.
Federal law bars candidates from converting campaign funds to personal use, and it allows former officeholders like Sinema a six-month wind-down period for legitimate expenses needed to close down a campaign. The complaint alleges spending continued well after that window should have closed on July 3, 2025 — through at least October — with no apparent political activity to justify it.
When Sinema left office on Jan. 3, 2025, her campaign account had $4.2 million on hand. By Jan. 31, 2026, when she filed a termination report for her campaign committee, all of that money had been spent.
“Federal campaign finance laws are clear that politicians who leave office do not have the green light to use leftover campaign funds however they want,” Saurav Ghosh, Campaign Legal Center’s director of federal campaign finance reform, said in a written statement. “Former Sen. Sinema appears to have spent an exorbitant amount of campaign money on a personal spending spree during the 12 months after she left office. The FEC must investigate her use of campaign money and hold her accountable for any violations of campaign finance law.”
More than half of the alleged illegal spending was on salaries for six staffers, including several who were paid while working other jobs — either with Sinema or at organizations she founded.
For instance, Daniel Winkler, the senator’s former senior adviser, moved with her to lobbying firm Hogan Lovells in March 2025, but collected campaign paychecks totaling $151,000 through September 2025. And Michelle Davidson, Sinema’s former deputy chief of staff, collected $85,000 in campaign pay even as she was working as the executive director of the Spark Center for Innovation in Learning at ASU — the center Sinema founded with $3 million in campaign funds.
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