Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign “may have” spent over $150,000 on copies of his own book, as outlined by a new report from Forbes. (Federal disclosure forms from the Cruz campaign identify the spending as for “books” — and that’s it, making tangible confirmation difficult.) Although there’s no apparent concrete indication that Cruz received royalties from these purchases, the money was still poised to help boost the profile of his book.
Cruz’s most recent book, One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History, was published on September 29, 2020, and the large book purchases by the Cruz campaign came shortly thereafter, concluding on December 1 of last year with a $111,900 purchase from the bookseller Books-a-Million. Together, three Cruz campaign expenses at Books-a-Million from late last year — after the Cruz book’s publication — total a full $153,000. Cruz does appear to be garnering financial success from the book purchases, even if those benefits aren’t coming through royalty payments. At present, the Cruz campaign has autographed copies of the Senator’s recent book available for donations of at least $77. Separately, Cruz has also apparently reaped significant sums from the book — in 2020, he received an advance of $320,000.
Campaign finance attorney Brett Kappel told Forbes that the Federal Election Commission “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 those sales are given to charity.” After news initially emerged about the Cruz campaign spending money on the Senator’s books, a spokesperson said that Cruz “had not received any royalties from his latest release,” Forbes explains. Read their full report on the matter at this link.
