The bipartisan Federal Election Commission sank deeper into crisis Thursday as Republican Commissioner Trey Trainor confirmed he’s resigning from the campaign finance enforcement body. The panel is now two members short of being able to actually enforce the nation’s campaign finance laws.
Trainor said he is weighing a potential run for the seat that Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas is vacating.
“I really just appreciate the president giving me the opportunity to serve, and you know, hopefully I’ll be back in Washington soon,” Trainor told NOTUS.
The six-member FEC lost a quorum of commissioners back in April, effectively shuttering the agency responsible for interpreting and enforcing campaign finance laws, save for its most basic functions, such as publishing political committees’ campaign finance disclosures.
Trainor, the vice chair, leaves on Oct. 3, as first reported by the Washington Examiner. When he leaves, there will only be two members left on the commission, Democrats Dara Lindenbaum and Shana Broussard.
President Donald Trump has failed to nominate candidates to replace the two Republicans who resigned from the commission since January and the one Democrat — Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub — whom Trump ousted in February over her objection.
NOTUS previously reported that congressional leaders formally recommended three FEC commissioner candidates to Trump earlier this year: Republicans Andrew Woodson at Wiley Rein; Ashley Stow, who works with Trainor at the FEC; and Democrat Jonathan Peterson, an attorney at the Elias Law Group. No more than three of the six FEC commissioners may come from the same political party.
Trainor told NOTUS on Thursday that he hopes his resignation will push the process forward, and that he has communicated to the White House the need for a quorum to answer advisory requests with the 2026 election just around the corner.
“To be real honest with you, I’m hoping that my leaving actually will help facilitate a faster confirmation process for them,” Trainor said.
Trainor told NOTUS he’s taking a position at Dhillon Law Group, following the well-trodden path many former FEC officials take to law firms. The firm was founded by Harmeet Dhillon, who now serves in the Trump administration as the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. Former Republican FEC Commissioner Lee Goodman is a partner there.
Trainor also said there’s a “96%-97% chance” he will run for his “great friend” Roy’s seat in Texas’ 21st Congressional District and will “probably make a decision here in the next three or four days.”
By law, a quorum of at least four FEC commissioners must be present for the agency to attend to its high-level duties. At present, the FEC can’t enforce campaign finance laws, formalize investigations, provide official legal guidance, defend itself in lawsuits or even conduct public meetings.
The longer a de facto FEC shutdown is in place, the larger its investigation backlog is likely to grow, particularly as the 2026 midterm elections heat up.
Following similar work stoppages in 2019 and 2020, during the first Trump administration, commissioners were forced to work through a backlog of hundreds of campaign finance enforcement cases, some of which died because of a five-year statute of limitations.
“The FEC is broken,” Committee on House Administration ranking member Joe Morelle, a New York Democrat, wrote on X Thursday. “With no refs on the field, politicians are calling their own penalties. The President needs to do his job — bring in the refs to restore fair play.”
Erin Chlopak, senior director of campaign finance at the nonprofit watchdog Campaign Legal Center, called the contract between the billions of dollars being poured into elections by billionaires trying to gain influence and the two lone commissioners remaining at the agency “stark.”
Chlopak also raised concerns about the FEC’s ability to operate independently, even if a quorum is restored.
“The Federal Election Commission has a unique responsibility to regulate political actors, including the candidates seeking office. And so when the candidate, the people that are subject to the agency’s regulation are in control of how it interprets the law, there’s an obvious conflict of interest there. The independence of the Federal Election Commission is therefore uniquely important and essential to the FEC’s ability to do its job as Congress intended,” Chlopak said.
Weintraub, the former FEC chairwoman who now works with Democratic organization End Citizens United, told NOTUS that “President Trump is intentionally sidelining the nation’s campaign finance watchdog. Restoring quorum is a fundamental necessity to safeguard against corruption.”
The White House, FEC, Roy’s office and the Republican office of the Committee on House Administration, which oversees the FEC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“There are no personnel announcements at this time, and any new nominee will be announced by President Trump,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told NOTUS in July.