California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell spent more campaign cash on travel and luxury accommodations than Rep. Nancy Pelosi during the last two years, according to a Fox News Digital review of Federal Election Commission records.
Swalwell’s campaign spent nearly $583,000 on travel expenses during the 2022 elections, the filings show. Pelosi, by contrast, finished the cycle by putting $434,000 into reported travel expenses, according to a review of her records.
Swalwell has consistently used donor funds on limousines, flights, yachts, and posh hotels, including internationally. The spending came as Americans in both his district and around the country faced rising inflation that drove food, fuel, and energy costs through the roof.
But as many Americans struggled with skyrocketing prices, Swalwell’s campaign lived the high life. Throughout the 2022 elections, its largest travel expense was $20,240 to the Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, where his wife was the sales director until 2019, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Swalwell’s committee also burned through thousands of dollars in Paris, France, including $1,800 early last May at the five-star Hotel La Maison Champs-Elysées, where nightly rooms run from around $1,000 to $1,200 per night.
‘The Maison Champs-Elysées in the heart of Paris’ ‘Golden Triangle’ is an elegant marriage of contemporary lines and unobtrusive luxury, this very special non-conformist hotel teases our expectations, with theatrical elements, a subtle, relaxed atmosphere, and attentive staff,’ the hotel’s website states.
Weeks later, the campaign reported spending hundreds of dollars at Le Cafe Marly, which is situated in the ‘heart of the Tuileries’ and just under the ‘arcades of the Louvre,’ according to its website.
Inside Le Cafe Marly, patrons admire ‘classified woodwork’ and views ‘of the museum’s sculpture room’ in one of the ‘most beautiful’ and ‘best kept’ secrets in Paris. Its menu features items from Homemade Ginger Carrot Juice for $12 to Oscietre Imperial Caviar with two shots of Beluga for $120.
And around that same time, the campaign expended $3,538.94 at France’s ‘iconic’ Ritz Paris, a posh hotel with several upscale bars and reservation rooms.
Swalwell’s committee, which went through much of the 2022 election cycle with just two paid staffers, added thousands more at luxury hotels in other prime vacation spots, including $4,708 at Loews Miami Beach, where rooms cost customers between $400 for city room views and $3,700 for the presidential suite, according to its website.
And in addition to the hundreds of thousands of dollars on travel accommodations, the campaign also doled out considerable cash on yachts and childcare services.
Swalwell’s committee spent $28,646 at Just Dreaming Yacht Charters, a San Francisco agency that offers ‘relaxing and luxurious’ private yachts for up to 40 passengers.
The California congressman also dug into his campaign’s coffers to cover $131,000 in childcare expenses, including $2,142 at a Maryland location of Let Mommy Sleep, which offers overnight postpartum care for newborn babies.
Swalwell’s campaign did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
Fox News’ Houston Keene contributed reporting.