If Kamala Harris replaces Joe Biden, will she have the funds to fund her campaign?

The Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris She has been one of the president’s staunchest defenders Joe Biden after his poor performance in last week’s debate, but also emerged as a possible option to lead the party if the president chose not to continue his campaign.

A big question is what would happen to the $91 million in cash available to the current campaign, according to the most recent filings. Combined with allied Democratic organizations, the reelection effort has access to $240 million in cash, the campaign said this week.

Could Harris take over the Biden-Harris campaign money?

Yes, although there are some caveats.

Because the campaign account was registered with the Federal Election Commission in the names of both candidates, Harris could use those funds for her own presidential campaign if Biden were to drop out, according to Kenneth Gross, senior political counsel at Akin Gump and a former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission.

Can donors receive refunds?

Only if the campaign team said yes.

Legal experts agree that if donors were to ask for their money back after a candidate change, the campaign team would have to approve the transfer. That means donors are not automatically entitled to a refund.

“Once a donor makes a gift, he or she relinquishes any rights to those funds,” Gross said.

Disgruntled donors who are considering suing are unlikely to succeed, according to Bradley A. Smith, a professor at Ohio Capital University College of Law.

“When you give money to a campaign committee, the contribution practically belongs to the committee to do whatever it wants, within the limits of the law,” he said.

¿What happens to the funds if neither Biden nor Harris are candidates?

According to Gross, the campaign team would have to return all the money, or something like that.

Any donations intended for the primaries, which Biden won, would be in the hands of the campaign,Gross noted, something that could technically apply to any money received by Biden-Harris through the Democratic National Convention in August.

“All contributions made before the August convention are considered to be earmarked for the primary election unless the donor states in writing that the contribution is for the general election,” the aide added.

According to Smith, if Biden were to drop out of the race and Harris did not replace him as the candidate, his former campaign team would could only transfer $2,000 of the money raised to a new candidate.

According to Gross, if both Biden and Harris drop out of the race or do not become the party’s nominee, they could choose to allocate campaign funds to a super PAC (campaign committee) or to the party itself.

But if those transfers were to take place, Smith said, “the vast majority would have to go to independent expenditures, which tend to be less effective.” And, he added, guaranteed TV advertising rates are higher for parties than for candidates, “so there is a cost to that as well.”

If Harris wins the race, she could do that with the funds, too, or keep them for her own campaign.

And if the account were to become a political action committee in general, that new entity would be limited in what it could allocate to the new candidate, said Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform for the Campaign Legal Center.

“Even if Biden’s campaign committee were to immediately convert itself into a political action committee — which is allowed — that PAC would only be able to transfer up to $3,300 per election to the campaign of the new presidential candidate,” Ghosh said. “There is no legal way for Biden to transfer the $90 million his campaign currently has on hand to a new candidate.”

Leaving aside presidential campaign options, Smith suggested that Biden-Harris funds could be transferred to Democratic committees to back House and Senate candidates or reserve themselves for later in the election calendar to “support Democrats in future years.”

Other options, he explained, could include a group created to promote causes and issues that align with the candidates’ views… “or they could donate the funds to charities, including, for example, a fantastic Joe Biden Center at the University of Delaware.”