Campaign Finance Allegations Shake Up Republican’s Reelection Bid MISSISSIPPI
Primary challengers pounce on allegations
R
$200,000
ACCORDING TO a 2020 report by a leftwing watchdog group, Palazzo may have used campaign funds to pay himself nearly $200,000.
ACCORDING TO A 2020 report by the Campaign
Legal Center, a left-wing watchdog group, Palazzo may have used campaign funds to pay himself nearly $200,000. An investigation by the House Ethics Committee is ongoing. A spokesman for Palazzo told Mississippi Today last month that the allegations against him are politically motivated and that the congressman hopes the ethics committee will clear his name. Palazzo serves on the House Appropriations Committee, which allocates federal spending. It’s likely that the allegations against Palazzo will “evaporate” when this session of Congress ends, according to Kedric Payne, vice president 28 I N S I G H T June 10–16, 2022
“We need a Congressman who shows up and gets the job done and I intend to do just that.” Clay Wagner, GOP primary candidate
of the Campaign Legal Center. Congress might neither clear nor punish Palazzo. But he might face punishment from voters. This year, six candidates are running against him in the Republican primary. Palazzo’s campaign platform supports prolife policies, backing law enforcement, ending illegal immigration, decreasing flood insurance costs, lowering taxes, funding warship-building programs, and the Second Amendment. DESPITE PALAZZO’S STANDING as an estab-
lished incumbent, Republican primary opponent Carl Boyanton has already out-fundraised him. His campaign lists Palazzo’s alleged ethics violations on his website. “One of the main reasons I am running for Congress is because of the inept leadership and outright corruption we have in the swamp,” Boyanton wrote in a blog post. “It has been almost a year since the ethics committee found 6–0 that Congressman Steven Palazzo committed campaign finance violations.” His platform supports term limits, pro-life policies, a balanced budget amendment, stopping illegal immigration, decentralizing government power, and decreasing the costs of college. Another opponent, Clay Wagner, has raised nearly as much as Palazzo. According to a Facebook post by Wagner, Palazzo has avoided candidate forums. “Unsurprisingly, Congressman Palazzo failed to show up to this forum just like he failed to appear at the last one. We need a Congressman who shows up and gets the job done and I intend to do just that,” Wagner wrote. He supports decreasing inflation, creating
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP L: COURTESY OF HOUSE GOP, DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES, CLAY WAGNER, COURTESY OF CARL BOYANTON
ep. steven palazzo (r-miss.) has won the past six elections in Mississippi’s 4th Congressional District, but recent campaign finance allegations may shake up his reelection bid, with four Republicans vying to oust him in the 2022 primary. In March 2021, the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) made public a report that suggested Palazzo “may have violated House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law.” The OCE found evidence that Palazzo used campaign funds to maintain and improve a property he owned, may have spent campaign funds on personal expenses, may have asked official staffers to perform campaign and personal work during their workdays, may have spent congressional allowances on campaign or personal expenses, and may have used his position to ask for special treatment from the Navy for his brother, according to the report.
By Jackson Elliott
