32 years after leaving office, a former SC congressman made a million-dollar campaign transfer

More than three decades after leaving elected office, a former South Carolina congressman transferred $1.25 million from his campaign reserves into a Morgan Stanley account for charitable giving.

Robin Tallon Jr., who represented the 6th Congressional District for 10 years before not seeking re-election in 1992, moved the money last October as a “donation of securities,” according to the description on his last federal campaign filing. That’s not for personal investments, he told the SC Daily Gazette, but to a donor-advised fund to be distributed to charities.

The transfer was intended as the first step in officially shutting down the account, as the 78-year-old Florence resident thought he’d closed the door on attempting a return to politics. But as of Friday, he was rethinking that decision.

Despite not being in office since Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration, Tallon said he’s kept his campaign account open — and filed regularly with the Federal Election Commission — ever since, just in case he decided to make another run. In the meantime, he invested donations from decades ago, which is how he had that much money to transfer, he said.

“I’ve been encouraged to run by constituents and other people to run over the years,” he told the SC Daily Gazette last week.

And he may yet try to return to Washington — this time as a senator.

He’s considering a 2026 bid to challenge U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham as an independent.

Tallon, a native of Dillon, represented the 6th District as a Democrat when it spanned the Grand Strand and entire Pee Dee region. After a federal court drastically redrew the district’s lines following the 1990 census to create a House seat with a majority Black population, Tallon decided not to seek re-election. Democrat Jim Clyburn has held the seat since.

While he left Congress, Tallon didn’t altogether leave Washington. He worked as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill for a quarter century. His clients included Atria, one of the largest producers of tobacco, and dentists.

Tallon no longer considers himself a Democrat. The party’s moved too far left, he told the Gazette.

But unlike many other former Democrats in South Carolina who switched parties, Tallon doesn’t consider himself a Republican either. He thinks South Carolina has become a “lap dog” for President Donald Trump, who he considers bad for the country. 

So, he’s considering running as an independent, knowing he can’t win that way. But he could “perhaps hold some of our elected officials’ feet to the fire,” he said Friday. 

“It’s almost why not,” he said of a potential bid using the remaining $96,500 left in his campaign account. He would not undo the transfer to Morgan Stanley, he said.

The transfer was part of his 2024 end-of-year report filed April 12, more than two months late. Tallon blamed that on his accountant, saying he didn’t even realize it was past due.

Outside of Tallon, there’s only one former South Carolina congressman with an open campaign account: Gov. Mark Sanford.

As of his last FEC filing, the former two-term governor and two-time 1st District representative had more than $1.3 million cash on hand in his congressional campaign account. He told the Gazette he’s keeping it open because he may seek office again.

Sanford last campaigned in 2019, in a short-lived challenge to Trump. He was ousted from his congressional seat in the 2018 GOP primary, which led to Democrat Joe Cunningham briefly turning the coastal district blue.

If Sanford does return to politics, it wouldn’t be his first comeback. He was widely expected to be done with politics when he left the Governor’s Mansion in January 2011 following a scandalous affair with a woman in Argentina. But two years later, voters sent him back to Congress in a special election to replace Tim Scott, after then-Gov. Nikki Haley appointed him to the U.S. Senate.

Sanford, who has long railed about out-of-control federal spending, had no details of his potential future bid.

“Time will tell,” he told the Gazette about his plans.

FEC requirements

Tallon initially told the Gazette his account would likely be emptied within six weeks. But, with a potential future bid, it will stay open indefinitely.

While certainly unusual, there’s nothing illegal about keeping an account open as long as Tallon, according to the FEC.

The federal agency recommends emptying and closing campaign accounts within six months of leaving office, according to a 2013 advisory opinion. However, there’s no required timeline, a spokesperson for the commission said in an email to the Gazette.

And if a former officeholder is considering a run, as Tallon claims he has been for the last three decades, there’s no requirement to zero out the account at all.

It’s illegal for officeholders to use campaign donations for personal expenses, even after they leave office.

Departing officeholders’ options include reimbursing their donors, donating to charities or giving money to other campaigns and PACs, as South Carolina’s other former congressmen have done.

Former 3rd District Rep. Jeff Duncan, who decided not to seek an eighth term last year, terminated his account in April. He gave the Jobs, Energy and Our Founding Fathers PAC that he sponsored more than $640,000 in the process.

Former 4th District Rep. Trey Gowdy left Congress in 2017 but didn’t close out his account until 2021. He listed a $905,000 donation to the Miriam Foundation, a faith-based organization that provides mentorship and support for young women, in his final FEC filing.

And former Rep. Henry Brown, who represented the coastal 1st District after Sanford left Congress the first time, drained his account slowly, officially closing it nine years after not seeking re-election in 2010. In that time, he made a number of donations to candidates ranging from mayoral races to President Donald Trump.

The donor-advised Morgan Stanley account that Tallon transferred his campaign money to allows him to decide which charities will get the money and when. Determining which organizations to donate has been difficult, he said.

Tallon, who previously served on the Medical University of South Carolina board, said some of the money will go to the hospital, although he doesn’t yet know how much.

Contemplating campaigns

It isn’t unusual for former officeholders to keep accounts open for years after leaving office, said Jordan Libowitz, an expert on campaign finance for the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Decades, however, is another matter. He’s never seen someone keep an account open as long as Tallon, he said.

“That money probably should have been disposed of years ago,” he said.

A 2018 investigation by the Tampa Bay Times and Tampa-based 10News WTSP, as well as numerous other TV stations, found 100 examples of so-called zombie campaigns. But Tallon stood out as showing “just how much former lawmakers can get away with,” the reporters wrote seven years ago.

Spending from his campaign account included a $20,000 payment to his son as campaign treasurer, $4,000 for a computer in 2007, and a $900 iPad in 2017, according to the report.

At the time, he defended keeping the account open while weighing a potential return to office but conceded it was unlikely.

“I need to give that money away at this point,” he said in January 2018.

But then he changed his mind. In July 2019, Tallon’s lawyer, Butch Bowers, told the FEC that he would not close the account.

“At this time, he has not decided to do so, but he may very well elect to run for office in the near future,” Bowers wrote.

Between the 2018 report and the Morgan Stanley transfer last fall, most of Tallon’s campaign spending went to charities, accounting fees and nearly $8,700 in legal expenses, which he said was used for finding out what his options were for closing the account.

Tallon said he’d contemplated running in multiple elections over the years, both in the House and Senate. He seriously considered challenging U.S. Rep. Tom Rice for the 7th District in 2022 but then decided against it. (Rice was ousted that year by former state Rep. Russell Fry.)

Earlier last week, he told the Gazette he’d decided he was officially done with politics. He planned to close out the account. But on Friday, he was contemplating a run to call out the problems with both major parties.

“This would be a very low budget campaign, but a chance to hold our leaders in Washington accountable,” he said.