Love’s campaign received a letter last month from the Federal Election Commission indicating Friends of Mia Love raised more than $1 million for a primary election campaign that never happened. Love was nominated at the Utah Republican Convention April 21 and never faced an in-party challenge. But by collecting primary funding, the Love campaign could effectively tap donors twice — once during the convention cycle and again during the primary cycle — without the donors violating donation limits.
The Love campaign argues that the money was raised when a primary was still possible. The campaign is offering to refund or redesignate the contributions, but it’s not admitting it did anything wrong.