U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., may widely be considered the front-runner in the race to replace outgoing U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. But he isn’t the candidate — or potential candidate — who has spent the most.
That would be Brock Pierce, a former child actor known for appearing in the Mighty Ducks movie franchise and starring in the 1996 film First Kid who later made a fortune — by some accounts, billions, others, millions — in cryptocurrency speculation.
Pierce has filed candidacy paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission to run as an independent, created a website and, per filings amended with the commission in February, spent about $251,900 in the last two months of 2021. Welch, for comparison, has spent $146,900.
It remains unclear if Pierce will actually run. In an Instagram post published after submitting candidacy paperwork with the FEC, Pierce wrote that he was merely considering the prospect. Politico reported last week that he was still “exploring” a campaign.
Despite his circumspection, he is spending freely. Expenses incurred include more than $55,000 billed to a private jet company, at least $100,000 for various consulting services, and a little over $50,000 on campaign gear.
Welch is probably not worried about money. He closed the year with about $2.5 million cash on hand, according to FEC filings. Pierce’s campaign has $41,000 cash on hand and is $240,000 in debt — mostly to Pierce. (The campaign’s cash flow comes mostly courtesy of a $200,000 loan from the candidate himself.)
The former child star’s ties to Vermont, meanwhile, appear somewhat tenuous. His campaign website claims that Pierce’s family has a “long history in Vermont predating the American Revolution,” and adds that he “grew up with an awareness and love of the Green Mountain State.”
Many wonder whether he would qualify for the ballot. Questions of residency and eligibility perennially come up in Vermont — most recently during Lt. Gov. Molly Gray’s race in 2020 for the post she currently holds.
To be lieutenant governor in Vermont, one needs to have been a resident of the state for four years preceding the election, per the state’s constitution.
Requirements for the U.S. Senate, which are spelled out in the U.S. Constitution, are a bit laxer and say simply that one must be a resident in that state “when elected.”
Peter Teachout, a professor at Vermont Law School and constitutional expert, said it’s “technically possible,” but “realistically highly unlikely,” that Pierce could buy or rent a home in Vermont sometime before the election (if he hasn’t already) and call it a day.
But if challenged in court, Teachout said Pierce may have difficulty producing evidence he’s ever paid taxes here, voted here, gotten a driver’s license or had longstanding ties of any kind — factors the court has put significant stock in during past cases about establishing residency.
“Even if such a person did meet the ‘domicile’ requirements, how likely to be elected?” Teachout asked.
Unless you count Pierce himself, not a single Vermonter contributed to Pierce’s campaign during the most recent reporting period. But two people with Puerto Rican addresses gave the maximum $2,900 allowed per election. Tax breaks have made the island a haven for cryptocurrency millionaires, and Pierce, chairperson of the Bitcoin Foundation, has been busy there, buying multi-million-dollar properties and leading the charge to create a crypto utopia in the tropics.
The cost of living is skyrocketing on the island, and Pierce has become the poster child — literally — for Puerto Rico’s growing inequality. “THIS IS WHAT A COLONIZER LOOKS LIKE,” anti-gentrification protesters in Old San Juan are reportedly writing on placards bearing Pierce’s picture, according to Insider.
Pierce has not responded to requests for comment from VTDigger. But in a sit-down interview published in December with Roundtable, a digital cryptocurrency-focused news outlet he co-founded, Pierce said Vermont was an ideal place to test out his independent brand of politics. People here “want to know their candidates,” he said, and “vote for people over party.”
But he implied that he was still testing the waters, adding that the next step for him would be to have “another thousand conversations” to gauge interest in his candidacy.
“You don’t want to be that presumptuous person riding in on your high horse, you know, saying I know what’s best for you without having taken the time to sit and to listen,” he said. “Otherwise, you just look like, you know — a carpetbagger.”