Missouri watchdog files state, federal complaints alleging Nathan Willett illegally funneled $165K in old campaign cash to fund run for Congress

A conservative watchdog group filed federal and state complaints Monday alleging that congressional candidate Nathan Willett illegally routed more than $165,000 from his defunct state Senate campaign, through a Georgia nonprofit, to a super PAC backing his run for U.S. Congress.

Liberty Alliance USA said in a statement that the super PAC “has funded more than three-quarters of its spending on his federal campaign with that money, and that Willett personally covered bounced refund checks to his own donors without disclosing it.”

Willett, a Kansas City Council member who abandoned a run for state Senate, is campaigning to win the Republican nomination for Missouri’s Sixth Congressional District, after U.S. Rep. Sam Graves announced he will retire at the end of his current term. The primary election is Aug. 4.

According to the federal complaint, Willett violated the federal “soft money” ban – 52 U.S.C. § 30125(e)(1)(A) and 11 C.F.R. § 300.61 – which bars a declared federal candidate from directing non-federal funds toward his own election.

Willett was already a congressional candidate on April 30, 2026 when his terminated state committee sent $165,384.46 to Grassroots America Inc., the complaint alleges. Weeks later the Georgia nonprofit passed $160,384.46 – about 97% of it – to Conservative Future Fund, a super PAC that reported $207,889.03 in independent expenditures largely boosting Willett and targeting an opponent. The filing asks the FEC to weigh penalties under 52 U.S.C. § 30109(a)(5)–(6).

According to the state complaint, the $165,000 payment was an unlawful use of committee funds under Section 130.034, RSMo – which bars converting contributions to personal use – arguing a Georgia nonprofit is not a permitted recipient and the money aided Willett’s federal campaign.

Two further counts invoke Section 130.021, RSMo: that the April 30 termination filing falsely certified “no surplus remained” and no outstanding debts, even as it drained cash on hand from $190,936.13 to $0.00 that day and left refund checks unpaid – including a $2,400 check that bounced – which Willett later covered with personal checks. It asks for a special investigator under Section 105.961, RSMo, and civil penalties.

“This isn’t a coincidence – it’s a candidate using a shell of a nonprofit that shares a treasurer with his own campaign to launder his old campaign account into a super PAC built to elect him to Congress,” said Liberty Alliance Executive Director Andy Bakker. “More than three out of every four dollars that super PAC spent on his race trace directly back to his old state campaign account. This is illegal. …

“We’re asking the FEC and the Missouri Ethics Commission to follow the money and hold him accountable.”

Photo credit: Nathan for North Missouri website