Today, Daily Beast and PunchUp reported on Bill Huizenga’s shady campaign spending — again.
Having clearly not learned a thing from his previous House Ethics probe, Huizenga spent campaign money on ski trips, golf trips, and fancy restaurants.
Read the full story here.
Key Excerpts:
- A loyal Trump foot soldier in Congress who spent five years under investigation for abuse of campaign funds has since splurged thousands of donor dollars on ski trips, golf and fine dining, PunchUp can reveal.
- As Americans wrestle with the cost of living, MAGA Rep. Bill Huizenga’s campaign spent more than $3,000 on Montana snowmobile rentals and about $440 at a fancy Puerto Rico restaurant in February and March alone, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
- He was previously the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation into campaign money spent at holiday spots including Disney World, Utah’s Deer Valley ski resort, and Michigan’s Mackinac Island.
- It nevertheless found sloppy bookkeeping had breached conduct rules and that some spending strayed into murky regulatory territory, and told him to take more care to avoid looking like he was living large on donors’ dime.
- Scrutiny hasn’t cramped his style. On Feb. 25 this year, almost two years after the ethics committee closed its file, the campaign cut a $3,178.37 check for “event rentals” to Canyon Adventures in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, FEC records show.
- Canyon Adventures rents snowmobiles. A full-day guided run on an Arctic Cat 800 runs $400 a machine plus a $450 guide fee, its website shows—enough to put six people on the mountain for the day. Huizenga’s campaign told PunchUp the costs were incurred as part of the congressman’s annual ski fundraiser.
- The dinner came a month later. On March 23, the campaign paid $436.80 to Marmalade, a San Juan, Puerto Rico, restaurant, under “meeting expense.” Marmalade serves only a five-course tasting menu at $155 a head, plus a $105 wine pairing.
- Oddly, Huizenga doesn’t appear to have been in the Caribbean that day, but in Michigan—touring Pro Services Academy, a skilled-trades school in Portage, with then-Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
- Those are only the latest. In April 2024, while Congress was still probing his finances, the campaign spent $1,986.15 in “travel expenses” at the Little Nell, Aspen’s only five-star, ski-in/ski-out hotel, where rooms start at $799 a night, and $556 the same day at Ski Aspen, logged as “event tickets.” Huizenga’s campaign said those fees were from when he featured as a guest at a colleague’s fundraiser.
- Those followed a single day in Florida on Dec. 26, 2023, when the campaign ran up $586.37: $366.86 to Ship Sticks, which ships golf clubs; $70.53 at the Concession Golf Club, a private course in Bradenton; and $60.40 at Bennington Tobacconist, a Sarasota cigar shop, plus a Tampa restaurant tab and parking.
- The congressman’s campaign said the costs were incurred at a fundraiser with House Speaker Mike Johnson. Everything but the shipping and parking was logged as a “meeting expense.”
Published: Jun 22, 2026