'Pathetic': Ted Cruz’s 2020 campaign spent 'more than $150,000' at a major book chain — possibly on his own book

September 2020 saw the publication of Sen. Ted Cruz's second book, "One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History," and one of the places where the far-right Texas Republican promoted the book was the U.S. chain Books-A-Million. According to Guardian reporter Alison Flood, Cruz's campaign "spent more than $150,000" there "in the months after the Texas senator's book was published."

Flood explains, "The end-of-year report from Cruz's committee, filed with the Federal Election Commission, reveals that two weeks after 'One Vote Away' was published, his campaign spent $40,000 at Books-A-Million. Shortly afterwards, it spent a further $1500, and in December, another $111,900. All of the purchases are described by the campaign as 'books,' and Forbes speculated that they may have been used to boost his book sales."

Flood notes that according to attorney Brett Kappel, a campaign finance expert, "The FEC has issued a long series of advisory opinions allowing members to use campaign funds to buy copies of their own books at a discount from the publisher, provided that the royalties they would normally receive on those sales are given to charity."

The Cruz campaigns spending at Books-A-Million has received a great deal of attention on Twitter. On August 18, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington tweeted:

Here are some more responses: