Trey Trainor is the chairman of the Federal Elections Commission, the independent regulatory agency whose purpose is to enforce campaign finance laws in federal elections. He was nominated to the position by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate earlier this year.
He has practiced law for two decades, particularly in the areas of election law, campaign finance law, and ethics. He previously served as general counsel to the Texas secretary of state and has represented the Texas Republican Party and two presidential campaigns. Prior to joining the FEC, Trainor was a partner at Akerman and had his own private practice.
A native of Driftwood, Texas, he got his undergraduate and law degrees from Texas A&M University. He was honorably discharged from the Army Reserve in 2000. He lives in Texas with his wife, Lucy, and their six children.
Trainor, 47, spoke to the Washington Examiner about the 2020 election and issues related to campaign finance.
Washington Examiner: What is your sense of why there’s been this ginormous outpouring of election spending this cycle, besides the obvious that we’re in a deeply partisan, fight-filled phase as a country?
Trey Trainor: One, I think it’s a function of the fact that people are at home because of COVID. I think people are probably paying attention more to the news than they normally would. I think that both sides of the aisle have gotten much better at reaching out to their donor base via text messages and Twitter and Facebook, more so than in the past. I think they’ve relied heavily on direct mail and on emails in the past.
So I think they’ve become highly targeted in how they’re fundraising. I think both sides have done a very good job at focusing on low-dollar donors. I think that’s why the individual donor numbers are up, because they recognize the value in getting the low-dollar donor to commit. I think the other thing we see, even in these quarterly reports and in the monthly reports, is the recurring donor as well. I think Republicans probably have a little bit of an advantage when it comes to recurring donors. On the Democrat side, I think there’s a few more big-dollar donors, but both sides have done a good job at focusing on low-dollar donors.
Washington Examiner: On the topic of big donors versus small donors, I know that Vice President Biden raised almost $200 million from those who’ve given at least $100,000 from big donors, the 1%. Biden has had twice as many donors who have given a six-figure donation compared to President Trump. Why do you think that is? It’s a pretty huge gap.
Trainor: It appears to me to be a function of how each side is running their campaign. If you look at President Trump’s campaign, it’s been focused on events and rallies and things like that, whereas Biden’s campaign has been more an air war and, you know, big, talking-point messages, commercials, that type of thing. So I think the fundraising is really just reflective of the type of campaign that they’re running.
Washington Examiner: Have you found anything particularly surprising or unexpected during these first few months as chairman in terms of how the FEC is run or campaign finance in general?
Trainor: You know, having the absence of a quorum at the FEC has been a real challenge for us. And so, obviously, that’s kind of the big, overarching thing that I see going on internally at the agency. Having come from the outside, being a practitioner and lawyer in front of the agency, there’s probably a higher level of scrutiny toward campaign finance complaints that come in than what I initially thought, being a practitioner.
Washington Examiner: Anything else?
Trainor: The other thing I’ll tell you that I’m flabbergasted about is when we did have a quorum, is my Democratic colleagues not voting to defend the agency and giving the progressive groups the opportunity to go and get default judgments against the commission so that you have courts that are making campaign finance law, as opposed to the executive agency that’s responsible for dealing with campaign finance law. So that part is for me, it’s unconscionable that that’s going on.
Washington Examiner: What is the “dark money” situation at the moment? How are we doing this cycle in terms of money being spent that we don’t know the original source of, where we don’t know the donor?
Trainor: I think you’re seeing it evenly split on both sides. I would say if there’s one takeaway from this cycle on the campaign finance side, it’s that the Democrats have figured out that dark money or independent expenditures are not necessarily a bad thing. I think they’ve become just as proficient at using them as the Republicans were in the past couple of cycles. I think you see independent expenditures going both ways and in pretty even numbers.
Washington Examiner: I was curious to know — it’s been reported that you’ve called the 2020 election a “spiritual war.” What exactly did you mean by that?
Trainor: Well, there was an interview I did with the Church Militant publication, where I was talking from a Catholic’s perspective, that I really do believe that this election is very determinative for our country. Regarding spirituality, we were talking about the ability of churches to speak freely and publicly. And I think, in that sense, the election it is spiritual in nature because it will determine whether our private institutions like the church are going to be able to continue to preach and have control over what goes on inside their churches versus having government control over what they can and can’t say in churches, like you have in Communist China. Currently, Trump has decided not to enforce the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits all nonprofit organizations, like churches, from endorsing political candidates, but that could change depending on the election.
Washington Examiner: Last but not least, do you have any unique or quirky personal hobbies that you like to do in your free time?
Trainor: I really enjoy obstacle course racing. The biggest company in the world that does it is called Spartan, and you do a race with like 30 or 40 obstacles. Local, smaller races are called mud runs, you know like running underneath wires and through the dirt and stuff. I had a friend of mine doing them a few years ago, and he invited me for a 5K. Jumping over walls and climbing ropes and stuff is a lot more fun than just running a 5K normally. The obstacle course is a lot more natural than a road race.
