Took the money and ran
29 former members of Congress have a combined $48.6 million sitting in their campaign accounts
Devin Nunes resigned from his House of Representatives seat in 2022 to run Trump Media, but his campaign still has $14.5 million in cash on hand. (When the FEC asked his committee to “explain the committee’s intended use” earlier this year, his attorney replied that they’d held on to the funds “for a potential future election.”) Nunes is an extreme case, but other campaigns have held onto cash for far longer: Joe Kennedy II left Congress in 1999, but his 1988 campaign committee still holds $1.2 million.