New reporting out today reveals that Ted Budd “repeatedly sided with payday lenders” and in return, they “repeatedly filled his campaign coffers.” Despite North Carolina’s payday lending ban, Budd has consistently voted for legislation that supports predatory lenders and their “exploitative tactics.” In May 2017, Budd even received industry donations “within days of a key vote” that would allow payday lenders to charge higher interest rates on consumers. 

Learn more about Budd’s “history of siding with his donors over his North Carolina constituents.” 

American Independent: GOP Senate nominee Ted Budd sided with payday lenders as he took their PAC donations

• North Carolina Republican Senate nominee Ted Budd has consistently sided with predatory lenders and the payday lending industry, even though payday lending is banned in his state. The industry has rewarded him with thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.
• He has consistently supported lenders who prey on lower-income individuals using abusive repayment terms and exploitative tactics, practices that have been illegal in North Carolina for more than 20 years.
• In March 2018, Budd signed on as a co-sponsor of an effort to repeal a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule cracking down on payday, car title, and other high-cost loans.
• In July 2020 and again in February 2021, Budd introduced a “Freedom from Regulations Act” that would have placed limitations on the actions of independent agencies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
• As Budd repeatedly sided with payday lenders, payday lenders repeatedly filled his campaign coffers.
• He received at least $2,500 from the Community Financial Services Association of America PAC, the political arm for the payday lending industry’s trade association. 
• Budd’s June 2022 campaign finance report noted thousands of dollars in PAC contributions from payday lending companies.
• Some of the industry donations he received came within days of a key vote.
• On May 4, 2017, Budd voted to advance the Financial CHOICE Act of 2017 out of the House Financial Services Committee. The package, which was mostly aimed at rolling back the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, included a section determining that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “may not exercise any rulemaking, enforcement or other authority with respect to payday loans, vehicle title loans or other similar loans.”
• Several financial company executives donated to Budd that month, including at least one payday lender.
• On May 31, he received $1,000 from Scott Wisniewski, the CEO of Western Shamrock Corporation, which offers paycheck advance loans and has been called a “predatory lender” by the advocacy group Texans for Public Justice.

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