Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA), one of the longest-serving and most outspoken progressive figures in Congress, is facing renewed backlash after a damning Federal Election Commission (FEC) investigation revealed a slew of campaign finance violations tied to her 2020 re-election effort.
In documents released last Friday, the FEC formally concluded that Waters’ campaign committee, Citizens for Waters, violated multiple provisions of federal campaign law — including:
- Failing to accurately report receipts and disbursements
- Knowingly accepting excessive contributions
- Making prohibited cash payments exceeding $100
The Waters campaign has agreed to pay a $68,000 civil penalty, and is required to send its treasurer to an FEC training program for political committees. According to the agreement, evidence of compliance with that requirement must be submitted to the Commission.
FEC findings show the campaign accepted over $19,000 in excessive donations from seven individual donors during the 2019–2020 cycle. While the over-the-limit funds were eventually refunded, the commission flagged the campaign for doing so “untimely.”
Moreover, the campaign made at least four prohibited cash payments totaling $7,000, with individual disbursements exceeding the legal threshold of $100 — a clear violation of rules intended to prevent untraceable campaign spending.
Waters’ attorney, Leilani Beaver, attempted to frame the violations as unintentional clerical oversights, attributing them to staffing and resource shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a 2024 letter to the FEC, Beaver wrote that the violations “were not willful or purposeful.”
Still, the campaign’s admission and agreement to pay the fine mark a rare, public rebuke of one of the most entrenched figures in Democratic politics.
The violations echo previous ethics concerns surrounding Waters — most notably her campaign’s lucrative payments to her daughter, Karen Waters, for managing so-called slate mailer operations.
An investigation by Fox News in 2023 uncovered that Karen Waters received $192,300 from the campaign between January 2021 and December 2022 for work related to these mailers. This follows a long-running pattern; since the early 2000s, Karen Waters has reportedly received more than $1 million from her mother’s campaign over the years.
Slate mailers, while legal in California, are often criticized for confusing voters by presenting endorsed slates that may misrepresent ideological or policy alignment between candidates. They are rarely used in federal races — but Waters has continued to rely on the practice for decades.
