FEC Commissioner Resigns, Paralyzing Campaign Watchdog

Republican Allen Dickerson is resigning his seat on the Federal Election Commission, leaving the watchdog agency without the quorum it needs to conduct high-level business or even hold meetings.

At the tail end of a Wednesday FEC meeting, Dickerson, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2020, said that he had informed the president that he would step down at the end of the day when his term on the commission formally expires. 

Dickerson’s decision leaves the FEC with just three members: Republican Trey Trainor and Democrats Shana Broussard and Dara Lindenbaum. Republican former Commissioner Sean Cooksey resigned his post in January ahead of Trump’s inauguration. Weeks later, the president forcibly removed Democratic former Commissioner Ellen Weintraub from the commission. 

The FEC needs a quorum of at least four commissioners to operate. Trump has yet to nominate anyone to the vacant seats. A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to C&E’s request for comment on Dickerson’s resignation or questions about when Trump could choose nominees for the commission.

While Dickerson may be departing, the commission moved on Wednesday to name a new chair, electing Broussard to head up the agency beginning on July 1. Trainor has been serving as acting chair since February, when Trump ousted Weintraub, who had been serving as the commission’s chair.

No Timeline for Nominations

Dickerson’s resignation doesn’t mark the first time the FEC has found itself without the quorum it needs to conduct business. During Trump’s first term in the White House, the commission found itself shy of a quorum on two separate occasions: once in 2019 and again in 2020. 

Dickerson reflected on that period in his remarks on Wednesday. He said that the FEC that he and his colleagues inherited nearly five years ago had been mired in enforcement backlogs that took months to get through. Without a quorum and steady leadership, he said, the commission is at risk of repeating the past.

“The Commission we inherited did not fall apart overnight, and the commission that we have built is not guaranteed to last,” Dickerson said.

It’s unclear how long the FEC will lack a quorum, but the commission’s work won’t freeze entirely. Staffers will continue the basic work of processing and publishing campaign finance reports, but the commissioners won’t be able to issue enforcement decisions or advisory opinions.

While Dickerson acknowledged the challenges ahead for the FEC, he also urged caution in how the commission approaches its role moving forward, arguing that careful deliberations and disagreements are what give the agency its authority. 

“Some of you may believe the problem is that the commission deadlocks too often and enforces too seldom,” Dickerson said. “I urge you to remember that the sincere bipartisan nature of our enforcement decisions is why when the commission does move forward it does so credibly. Congress wisely created an agency that fails safe. There is no shortcut.”