Carly Fiorina delivered a pair of $48,000 speeches in October. | Getty Carson, Huckabee, Fiorina earned speaking fees during campaign Candidates say they fulfilled past commitments, deny conflicts of interests.

Presidential candidates typically take a timeout from the paid-speech circuit to avoid potential conflicts of interest and thorny restrictions on mixing campaign and personal business. But that hasn’t stopped Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina or Mike Huckabee, who chose to fulfill commitments to the nonprofits and business groups that signed them up for five-figure fees before they jumped into the race.

Carson just completed a string of seven paid speeches that commanded fees worth as much as $500,000 in total. Fiorina delivered a pair of $48,000 speeches in October — one to AT&T and another to Young Presidents Organization, a business executives’ group — though her financial disclosure suggests she diverted the fees to charity. Huckabee’s campaign acknowledged that the candidate has delivered paid speeches since announcing his bid but declined to provide a list of venues or fees earned.


The decision to give paid speeches forces the three Republican candidates to navigate a complex set of rules that, in many ways, requires them and their audiences to suspend reality. Though their identity as presidential candidates is widely known — and sometimes used by organizers to attract a crowd — they’re prohibited from making references to their candidacies or the presidential campaign. And federal rules forbid using campaign resources to support their private endeavors, including ancillary costs like travel and accommodations.

Yet all three have darted on and off the campaign trail to deliver their talks, sometimes sandwiching them between campaign stops. And, particularly in Carson’s case, the substance of speeches can be virtually indistinguishable from remarks delivered on the stump.

“It's unusual,“ said Larry Noble, an attorney with the Campaign Legal Center. “It's a hard thing to do and pull off without stepping over one line or another.”

Candidates have sometimes found ways to make money while on the campaign trail, most frequently in royalties from books often released midcampaign, sales of which can soar thanks to the notoriety that comes with a presidential bid. (Not to mention, campaigns often purchase their candidates’ books in bulk to give away at fundraisers or other functions.) But paid speaking comes with the added element of a well-heeled sponsor that could present at least the appearance of currying influence with a would-be president.

That’s partly why Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton quit giving paid speeches before announcing her run in April. The fees she commanded, which often ran into six figures, brought intense questions, especially from Republicans, about potential ethical conflicts. Jeb Bush, too, instructed the Washington Speakers Bureau to stop booking paid appearances seven months before he announced, and he gave his last paid speeches in early 2015 before he launched his presidential bid. Donald Trump routinely netted hundreds of thousands of dollars per speech before launching his bid, but his campaign said he halted all paid speeches since announcing his candidacy.

In previous elections, candidates have halted paid speeches as well. In 2012, Newt Gingrich suspended his paid speaking schedule to mount a bid, and in 2008, Rudy Giuliani ended his lucrative speaking tour to run. That’s partly because federal rules are murky on when private appearances cross the line and become “campaign related.” Federal Election Commission regulations suggest candidates are responsible for dividing personal and campaign expenses. A 1996 FEC advisory opinion added that paid speeches would amount to campaign-related events only if the speaker were to solicit campaign donations or if the event were to involve “expressly advocating the nomination, election or defeat of any candidate.” The FEC has deadlocked on whether and how to enforce such restrictions.

Carson, Fiorina and Huckabee have all characterized their recent speechmaking as the fulfillment of longstanding commitments to the groups that brought them in and say they’re no longer accepting speaking opportunities. The Carson campaign declined to comment for this story.

Carson’s commitments included a May 11 speech to Save Our Youth, a nonprofit supporting at-risk kids with educational and emotional support. Carson reported on his disclosure forms a speaking fee was between $50,000 and $100,000 for the event, higher than any fees he reported receiving in the previous year and a half.

His next speech, on May 28, was delivered to the Abilene, Texas-based Meals on Wheels Plus at the same rate. The group’s executive director, Betty Bradley, said Carson’s appearance had been booked a year and a half ahead of time but that she was clearly informed not to ask him any questions about his campaign to avoid running afoul of federal rules. The even ended up raising about $200,000, about double what Bradley said she anticipated.

“It was an overwhelming success,” she said. “We sold out and we ended up adding more tables. I had some people tell me that it was the best event they’d ever been to.”

Carson spoke to the Alabama-based Phil Waldrep Ministries in June and to Dayton Right to Life in September.

His remaining engagements, all in November, included a speech to the Florida-based YMCA of the Suncoast on Nov. 3, just as he’d surged to the top of the Republican primary field. He spoke to CSP Business Media on Nov. 14 and to Young Presidents Organization of Cincinnati — a different chapter of the group Fiorina addressed a month earlier — on Nov. 18.

A spokeswoman for Fiorina said the former executive has no more speeches scheduled and delivered only nonpartisan remarks at her two events. The Wall Street Journal reported in October that Fiorina’s speaking firm advertised her availability for future paid speaking gigs, noting her “limited availability” for private functions, but Fiorina's team denied that she would be accepting new speeches.

Asked about his paid speeches in the 2016 race, Huckabee’s campaign said he hasn’t accepted any new gigs since announcing his candidacy and suggested that the bigger ethical question is whether elected officials in the race are bilking taxpayers by campaigning rather than doing their jobs.

“Any candidate working in the private sector probably needs to make money while they run for office — sometimes that includes paid speeches and that’s not necessarily a conflict,” said Huckabee campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley. “However, what current officeholders are doing is clearly a conflict. Only in Washington is it considered ‘OK’ to take the taxpayer funded salary you receive to do one job, and instead, use that money to campaign for another job.”

Huckabee offered a similar explanation when POLITICO reported on his schedule of paid speeches in 2007, during the former Arkansas governor’s first bid for president. At the time, he told POLITICO he had kept up his paid speaking schedule because it was an important source of income for his family.

Though doing so is rare, Huckabee’s not the only one who maintained a paid speaking schedule during a presidential candidacy. In the 2012 race, pizza magnate Herman Cain revealed that he continued to deliver speeches for $25,000 apiece. And Rick Santorum, that cycle’s runner-up, also continued to deliver paid speeches, according to an NBC report at the time. A spokesman for Santorum’s 2016 campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether Santorum has delivered paid speeches this year, too.