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A financial disclosure that Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz filed on Monday reveals that he received a $320,000 book advance last year and that his campaign bought $153,000 worth of books after it was published.
“The FEC has issued a long series of advisory opinions allowing members to use campaign funds to buy copies of their own books at a discount from the publisher, provided that the royalties they would normally receive on sales are given to charity,” Brett Kappel, an attorney and campaign finance specialist at Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg, said.
The campaign also purchased up to $18,000 worth of Facebook advertising to promote the book. The Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and Senate Ethics Committee because of the ads.
“Because Cruz receives royalties from book sales, his campaign crossed a legal line by spending donor funds on Facebook ads promoting sales of that book,” Brendan Fischer, CLC Director of federal reform, said while announcing the complaints earlier this year.
The Senator’s book, “One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History,” was published on September 29, 2020.
A spokesperson for the lawmaker insists that he did not make any money from royalties and declined to identify which books the campaign purchased.
“Senator Cruz has not received one cent of royalties in connection with any ‘One Vote Away’ book sales,” the spokesperson said.
The Senator’s official website is selling autographed copies of the book for a donation of $77.
“One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History” is on multiple bestseller lists.
