Joe Mitchell spends campaign funds on travel to Mar-a-Lago
The Republican nominee for Congress has spent significantly more money than Lindsay James, his Democratic opponent, on out-of-state travel.
Joe Mitchell, the Republican nominee for Iowa’s open 2nd District congressional seat, has spent tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funds on out-of-state travel. This campaign spending comes as Iowans face rising energy and food costs.
With incumbent Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson running for Senate in November, on June 2 Iowa primary voters nominated Mitchell and Democratic state Rep. Lindsay James to run in the November election for the open seat. The 2nd District includes Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, and other northeastern Iowa communities.
Mitchell served for two terms as a state representative from a southeastern Iowa district, worked on the transition team after President Donald Trump’s second election to the White House, and served as a regional administrator under Trump at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
According to an item published by the news site NOTUS on June 2, Mitchell’s campaign has reported spending more than $77,000 so far at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private Palm Beach, Florida, club and resort, for travel expenses, facility rental, and catering.
Mitchell shared photos of himself at Mar-a-Lago taken last October and November on social media, hosted a luncheon there in early December, and held a campaign event on the premises in March.
While other candidates have used Mar-a-Lago as a fundraising venue, NOTUS said that no candidate has spent more campaign funds there than Mitchell since January 2025.
Federal Election Commission records show that Mitchell’s campaign spent more than $20,000 on air travel, $438 in September for lodging at the Arizona Biltmore luxury hotel in Phoenix, and more than $500 for meals at Palm Beach restaurants in February.
James’ campaign has reported spending about $10,000 on airfare, including at least $3,800 for air travel reimbursement for her campaign manager. It did not specify any out-of-state meals or lodging.
Mitchell’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
At the same time that Mitchell spends tens of thousands of donated money on travel, Iowans are struggling to afford food and gasoline.
According to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump amounted to a tax increase of about $1,000 for the average American household in 2025; it estimates they will cost families another $700 in 2026.
Since Trump launched U.S. military attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, Iowans have seen average gasoline prices soar from $2.635 for a gallon of unleaded to $3.795 as of June 9, according to AAA data. Moody’s Analytics data released in May showed that, for the average American, the extra cost for energy since the start of the Iran War has been about $450 per person.
On May 24, during an appearance on Iowa News Now’s “Beyond the Podium” program, Mitchell interrupted interviewer Ray Baccari after he said that Trump’s tariffs on imported goods had been largely responsible for rising consumer prices. “Debatable. Debatable, but yeah,” he said.
Baccari asked whether the tariffs should be reversed or the Trump administration should take a different approach. Mitchell said: “I think the American people have been ripped off for decades, especially since NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement]. And so the president came in, he reset the table, he’s making sure that we’re having fair trade deals going forward for generations to come.
“No one had the backbone to be able to do this for a long time,” he continued. “And so I think the American people understand what he’s doing. They understand that he’s the best dealmaker that we’ve had in the White House in a long time. And you take out the price of ground beef and gasoline right now, many other costs have came down and have stabilized.”
Consumer prices overall have risen nearly 4% since a year ago, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Update June 10 at 4:00 p.m.: Changed the amount that Mitchell’s campaign spent on air travel from more than $10,000 to more than $20,000 for greater accuracy.
