KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Freshman Republican Congressman Steve Watkins of Kansas has forgiven $225,100 in loans he made to his 2018 campaign, according to a letter filed with the Federal Election Commission.
The Kansas City Star reports Watkins had given his campaign nearly half a million dollars in loans during the seven-way GOP primary for an open eastern Kansas congressional seat.
Watkins loans represented a substantial amount of his declared wealth at the time, which was somewhere between $440,053 and $2.7 million, according to required personal financial disclosure forms. Federal campaign finance rules allow candidates to lend unlimited amounts of their own money to their campaigns and to forgive the loans.
