Several senators have run afoul of Senate ethics rules designed to prevent them from using official Senate resources for campaign activities, according to a LegiStorm review of all senators' Twitter accounts and official websites.
According to guidance from the Senate Rules Committee, Senate rules prohibit "any linkage from a Member's official website or social media to any campaign website or social media." The committee further states that "a Member's campaign website may not link to his or her official Senate website."
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is among those to have mixed their official and campaign presence online. Hawley's official website frequently links to his campaign Twitter account in press releases and has done so as recently as last month. His official Twitter account has frequently linked to his campaign Twitter account, as recently as this past November.
Other senators who have run afoul of the rules are Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
Graham linked to his campaign Twitter account from a press release on his official website this past July. Rubio's official Twitter account has linked to his campaign Twitter account numerous times, as recently as November 2019, and his official website has also linked to his campaign Twitter account numerous times, as recently as February 2019. Cruz linked to his campaign Twitter account from his official Twitter account in July 2019. Booker and Schatz have both linked to their campaign Twitter accounts from their official Twitter accounts numerous times, with Booker's most recent instance occurring in October 2018, and Schatz's in January 2014.
While she could not have been in violation of Senate ethics rules at the time, then-Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) linked to her campaign Twitter account from her official Twitter account numerous times in August 2017. According to House rules, "Member and Committee websites may not include personal, political, or campaign information; and may not be directly linked or refer to websites created or operated by a campaign or any campaign-related entity." Her official Twitter account at the time, @RepSinema, has now become @SenatorSinema.
Correction: An earlier version of this post wrongly listed Sen. John Ossoff (D-Ga.) as having violated Ethics rules.
