News

In an article published in The News & Observer titled “NC’s Cheri Beasley fined for campaign violations, agrees to close federal committee”, written by Danielle Battaglia and published on March 20, 2025, Brett Kappel “…said it is ‘unfortunately’ no longer unusual for Senate campaigns ‘to run afoul of FEC regulations requiring that campaigns return excessive contributions within sixty days of being received.’”

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is reporting “…Beasley’s committee collected an excess of $137,320 by not adhering to a cap of collecting $2,900 from a single person, $2,000 from an authorized committee or $5,000 from a multi-candidate committee during each of the primary and general elections.”

As a result of the FEC’s findings, Beasley has been charged a $10,300 fine and is required to shut down her federal elections committee and close out her federal bank account.

“The growth in online fundraising typically results in a very large volume of contributions immediately before the primary and general elections and campaigns have difficulty processing them timely,” Kappel said in an email. “In this case the total amount involved was fairly small. The civil penalty was appropriate to the facts as was the agreement to terminate the committee after resolving the enforcement case.”