During the government shutdown of fall 2025, the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm went on a spending spree, generously wining and dining deep-pocketed donors at luxury locales across the country, according to recently disclosed expense reports reviewed by the Washington Examiner.
While federal employees were either furloughed or worked without pay, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) splurged on high-end hotel stays, travel, and catering costs, including eye-popping sums spent at an oceanside resort and a retreat in wine country.
Republicans in Congress had blamed the record-breaking shutdown, which marked a period of financial strife for many members of the federal workforce, on the Senate Democrats who repeatedly blocked a short-term funding bill over demands to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies.
Democrats in the Senate, meanwhile, pointed fingers at GOP lawmakers, accusing congressional Republicans of “sending premiums skyrocketing instead of working with Democrats to protect affordable health care.”
However, as the threat of another government shutdown looms, the Senate Democrats’ spending receipts from the fall appear to sour their claims that, by filibustering, they were fully focused on fighting financially for the working class.
For instance, on Oct. 2, day two of the shutdown, the DSCC tossed $62,415 toward an apparent fundraising retreat at a five-star resort on Sea Island, a privately owned island part of Georgia’s Golden Isles.
The coastal getaway boasts horseback rides along the island’s sandy shores, daybeds at the beach bar, and a state-of-the-art spa, with signature services such as Swedish massages, custom aromatherapy, a eucalyptus-infused steam room, and guided meditation labyrinth walks meant to “gently direct you away from the distractions of daily life.”
Around two weeks into the shutdown, on Oct. 13 and 14, the DSCC was slated to host donors at an overnight “Napa Retreat,” featuring a tour of the vineyards, according to an invitation obtained first by Politico.
Despite political opponents warning that the two-day trip reveling in California’s wine region would appear wildly out of touch with constituents, the DSCC put money toward the retreat anyway, dropping $10,341.24 on a booking at the Hotel Yountville, the event’s originally planned venue.
Located in the “culinary capital of Napa Valley,” the premier hotel is known for its Tuscan-European aesthetic. Guests there can pamper themselves at the estate’s oasis and enjoy a glass of wine between “vino therapy,” a full-body exfoliation with Cabernet-enriched salt scrub, followed by Chardonnay grape seed oil.
DSCC’s chairwoman, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), told the Washington Examiner in October that their plans could change if the shutdown dragged on.
“Right now, we’re focused on getting healthcare restored to millions of people, and I’ll make a decision on that later,” Gillibrand said of the respite in paradise.
Reports at the time indicated that the major fundraiser still proceeded as planned. On Tuesday, Gillibrand’s office acknowledged but chose to “ignore” the Washington Examiner’s latest request for confirmation that Gillibrand attended.
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), who appeared at the top of the invite, denied that she was one of the hosts and said she would not participate should the shutdown persist.
“I’m not hosting anything,” Alsobrooks previously told the Washington Examiner. “When we have a shutdown, we’re not going to be in Napa Valley.”
A spokesman for Alsobrooks reaffirmed this week that the senator did not attend the event in question.
At the end of October, the DSCC paid Hotel Yountville an additional $1,480.25, although it is unclear if that disbursement is tied to the earlier excursion.
Separately, on Oct. 29, the DSCC issued a $21,964.34 check to the Hotel Bennett in Charleston, South Carolina, reporting the transaction’s purpose as a fundraising activity.
Frequently ranked the No. 1. hotel in the city, the boutique hotel received a near-perfect rating from the Michelin Guide. It is known for combining Southern elegance with French-inspired accommodations intended to transport patrons to the streets of Paris.
That month, the DSCC also recorded dozens of travel and meals-related charges to American Express totaling more than $135,000. Earmarked for campaign materials and fundraising purposes, the payments, all occurring on Oct. 27, broadly covered transportation, event expenses, catering services, and venue fees.
When contacted by the Washington Examiner, the DSCC noted that Oct. 27 is the date that the American Express bills were paid, not necessarily the date of each individual charge. According to past filings, the DSCC typically paid off its American Express bills on or around the 27th of each month.
As for when exactly the American Express expenditures occurred, the DSCC did not respond to multiple follow-up requests for comment addressing whether they took place pre-shutdown.
The campaign committee also did not respond to inquiries about its payments concerning the Sea Island Resort and the Napa Valley retreat.
During the historically long shutdown, Republicans had highlighted the optics of Senate Democrats, who refused to extend government spending at current levels over the healthcare dispute, jetting off to luxurious locales to rub elbows with wealthy elites, but both parties had their fair share of hobnobbing at shutdown soirees.
SHUTDOWN SENDS CAMPAIGNS INTO OVERDRIVE TO SEIZE ON GOVERNMENT CHAOS
The National Republican Senatorial Committee spent considerable campaign funds on courting donors during the shutdown.
On Oct. 3 and 4, the NRSC was scheduled to host its own high-dollar fundraising retreat at the Sea Island Resort. Marketed as the committee’s “Fall Meeting,” the stay included a weekend of golf, pickleball, fishing, shooting, and afternoon lawn games. Invitees were offered beach club bedroom suites and oceanview rooms at a nearly $600-per-night rate.
However, the committee’s Federal Election Commission disclosures that fall did not document payments to the Sea Island Company, other than a mere $45.97 spent on food and beverages in October, as well as $40,000 on facility rental fees in June, and another $40,000 disbursement in July.
According to Axios, the weekend extravaganza was not canceled in light of the standstill on Capitol Hill. Sea Island attendees reportedly received an email from organizers telling them: “These events are reserved and contracted years in advance — beyond even our current term at the NRSC — and both our costs and attendees’ rooms are non-refundable.”
The show likely went on at the staff level, Axios speculated, with the 20 or so senators set to attend largely bailing and those who did appear attending incognito. Even when legislators are no-shows at events, senior aides and political advisers typically still get to schmooze with donors.
Sources similarly told Bloomberg Government that the hotel rooms had already been paid for and the retreat itself was booked well before talks of a government shutdown. Lobbyists said the logistics of scrapping a large, long-planned sojourn would be difficult and costly.
The NRSC did not reply to repeated requests for comment.
In the lead-up to the fundraising fete, the NRSC couched it as necessary to build the GOP’s base ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
“Schumer continuing to shut down the government because he wants to give free healthcare to illegals only further underscores how essential it is [that] Republicans protect and grow President Trump’s Senate majority next year,” NRSC spokeswoman Joanna Rodriguez wrote in a previous statement.
On Oct. 14, the NRSC sent $34,738.60 to the Newport Beach Country Club, although the transaction, categorized under catering and facility usage, was marked as an administrative cost. A frequent gathering spot for fundraisers, the invitation-only California country club has hosted numerous GOP events over the years, primarily for the Republican Party of Orange County.
There was also a big Senate GOP bash planned over Columbus Day weekend in Kiawah Island, a barrier island off the coast of South Carolina. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) was initially scheduled to attend but he had pulled out, per Punchbowl News.
That trip, too, had long been on the books, according to fundraising appeals from earlier in the year. Federal Election Commission disclosures show that the Fund for America’s Future, a Republican-aligned PAC, gave the Kiawah Island Golf Resort $5,640 on Oct. 3.
