Is former Sen. Jeff Flake mulling a political comeback?
The Arizona Republican certainly left open the possibility when he explained to the Federal Election Commission why he’s still holding on to more than $816,000 in his old Senate campaign account.
“Senator Jeff Flake has not yet decided whether to become a candidate for federal office in a future election cycle,” the Jeff Flake for US Senate Inc. committee wrote to the FEC on Monday in an unsigned letter. “The committee accordingly intends to retain most or all of its cash on hand pending a decision by Senator Flake with respect to his future plans.”
FEC official Nataliya Ioffe asked Flake’s campaign committee last week why it still had a “significant amount of residual cash on hand” and for it to “explain the committee’s intended use of the residual campaign funds.”
Flake served as a member of the U.S. House from 2001 to 2013 and the U.S. Senate from 2013 to 2019, representing Arizona. He also served as President Joe Biden’s U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 2022 to 2024.
Flake has not publicly stated any intentions to run for office, and his campaign committee made no reference to what elected office he might seek. Sen. Mark Kelly’s term ends in 2029 and Sen. Ruben Gallego’s term ends in 2031.
Federal law allows former members of Congress to keep their campaign committees technically operational — and filled with money — even if they’re not actively seeking office, so long as they don’t use the money for impermissible expenses such as personal merchandise or travel. A few dead lawmakers even have money still stashed in old campaign accounts.
By law, Flake could transfer his leftover Senate campaign funds to another federal-level campaign effort he wished to pursue — either for a House seat or the presidency. He could also donate the money to charity, spread it among other political committees or surrender it to the U.S. Treasury.
Flake did not respond to NOTUS’ requests for comment.
Facing cratering poll numbers, Flake in 2017 announced that he wouldn’t seek reelection in 2018. At the time, he decried President Donald Trump — a fellow Republican — as a malign force in politics whose “flagrant disregard for truth or decency” led to a “regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms.”
In a New York Times opinion piece published this July, Flake argued that Trump has created a “fever in our politics” that has yet to break.
“The Senate and our country need more leaders willing to pay a political price to uphold what they know is right. In the long run, that is the only way this fever ends,” Flake wrote. “Holding public office is a privilege — but it’s not worth sacrificing who you are. The Senate, and the nation it serves, is best led by those who remember that.”
Given the federal government’s shutdown, there could be a “hunger for pragmatic, right- and left-of-center candidates” such as Flake, said Gina Woodall, an assistant dean at the Arizona State University School of Politics and Global Studies.
But even though Arizona has a “track record for pragmatism,” Flake would likely find that it “would be very difficult, if not impossible, to win a Republican primary,” as the former senator himself has previously acknowledged, Woodall said.