The North Carolina Democratic Party today filed a complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics against Senator Thom Tillis alleging that Senator Tillis improperly used his capacity as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee to support his campaign and solicited and accepted campaign contributions because of specific official actions as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Read the full complaint online HERE and the attached exhibit online HERE.

“Senator Tillis appears to have violated federal law and ethics rules by using his official position as a Senator on the Judiciary Committee and his official actions to inappropriately solicit campaign cash for his floundering re-election,” NCDP Chairman Wayne Goodwin said. “Senator Tillis continues to show that he’s a self-serving Washington politician who will bend the rules for his own personal gain. We are respectfully asking the Select Committee on Ethics to immediately investigate Senator Tillis’ troubling political fundraising activity.”

The complaint outlines evidence that Senator Tillis has violated federal law and the Senate Code of Official Conduct in the following ways:

• First, Senator Tillis misused official resources for campaign purposes by choosing to use “Judiciary Committee Member” as the sender of a campaign fundraising email and by signing the email “Sen. Thom Tillis, Judiciary Committee Member.”

• Second, Senator Tillis solicited something of value for or because of an official act by asking for contributions to a “Presidential Protection Fund” before the Senate impeachment trial began “to ensure we have the resources to FIGHT BACK against the Democrats.”

This isn’t the first time Senator Tillis and his allies have been under fire for flouting campaign finance laws to benefit his campaign. In 2018, the nonpartisan watchdog Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint alleging that Senator Tillis’ campaign illegally coordinated with former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s Super PAC during his 2014 campaign for U.S. Senate “through the use of a common vendor, Cambridge Analytica.” Senator Tillis also faced a complaint from the non-partisan watchdog over alleged illegal coordination between the gun lobby and his 2014 campaign.

Read the full complaint online HERE and the exhibit online HERE.