The Miami Herald: What presidential losers do with millions in unspent campaign cash
“My suspicion is that some of them are sitting on the money,” said Larry Noble, former chief counsel of the Federal Election Commission and general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center.
While Sanders can “go out and speak for other candidates” such as Clinton, Noble said, he cannot simply transfer his campaign war chest to the Democratic nominee’s account.
Due to the rancor of the Republican primaries and candidates like Bush publicly saying they won’t support nominee Trump, Noble said that lots of super PAC money would sit around until the next election cycle, or go to super PACs not affiliated with the presidential race.
Vanquished candidate committees and their associated super PACs have one other option for unspent campaign donations.
“They can always return it to the donors,” Noble said.