Eddie Speir campaign directs nearly $25K to candidate’s close relatives

A review of congressional candidate Eddie Speir’s campaign reports shows he directed nearly $25,000 in spending to members of his family.

Both in direct payments and to family-owned businesses, Speir’s campaign in Florida’s 16th Congressional District has pumped more money to loved ones than he has raised in outside contributions. And that’s only through the end of 2023.

The campaign’s expenses include $9,000 paid to Clairebear Properties, a business founded by Speir and his wife, Claire, in 2013. According to the Business Observer, that company also purchased the property that used to house Bradenton Prep Academy in 2013. The land now houses Speir’s Inspiration Academy.

Speir’s congressional campaign paid $4,500 in three installments between Oct. 1 and Dec. 1 and another $4,500 to the company as a “debt payment of office space rent.”

But there are also payments to Speir’s family directly. Speir had a couple of reimbursements for travel expenses paid to himself, worth just a little more than $250. But that campaign also paid more than $2,900 in similar expenses to Claire, more than 10 times the amount the candidate paid back to himself.

More conspicuously, the campaign paid nearly $9,700 to Speir’s son, Tal, as a campaign salary. The money was paid in nine installments between Aug. 29 and Dec. 29 last year.

Tal Speir’s LinkedIn page indicated he graduated from the University of Colorado in 2022 with a degree in economics.

Additionally, the campaign paid Noah Rohm a $3,000 salary on Oct. 23. Rohm is married to Speir’s daughter, Autumn. According to his LinkedIn, Rohm is the marketing coordinator for TEECOM, an IT consulting firm.

After this story was published, Speir responded in a post on X, objecting to the characterization of the payments as “conspicuous” or unusual and calling the reporting on the story biased.

“I’ve given $500,000 to my campaign and paid people close to me to help with that effort. There is nothing wrong with this,” he said. “If I were using somebody else’s money donated for a different purpose and funneling it to my relatives, that would be something different … There isn’t even any basis for fraudulent activity here.”

The collective funding going to members of Speir’s family represents a small part of the more than $88,000 he spent on the campaign.

But it also exceeds the amount of money that so far has been donated by individuals to Speir’s campaign, which he has largely self-funded. Through the end of 2023, Speir raised just under $19,000 in outside contributions, then donated $1,000 out of pocket and pulled a $500,000 candidate loan.