October 18, 2022
Kistner has faced character scrutiny for inflating mileage reimbursements, hiding his personal finances and covering up his position on abortion
Reminder: Kistner still refuses to release travel logs to justify “driving the width of the United States more than 16 times”
Burnsville, MN –– This weekend, the Kistner campaign’s Q3 FEC report revealed $0 in mileage reimbursements during the height of campaign season, a year after a Star Tribune investigation detailed Tyler Kistner’s efforts to funnel thousands of dollars in campaign funds to himself through mileage reimbursements.
From January 2020 to December 2021, Kistner reported driving the equivalent of almost 56,000 miles – nearly a quarter of the way to the moon – and pocketing nearly $32,000 in mileage reimbursements. When pressed on his extraordinarily high mileage reimbursements, Kistner refused to release his travel logs to verify the payments he took from his campaign were legitimate.
After getting caught by the Star Tribune, Kistner’s mileage reimbursements dropped significantly. From April to June of this year, his reimbursements ticked back up, but to a believable amount, for the first time. What remained suspicious was that Kistner was a no-show at several scheduled events during Q2, with the exception of a small number of parades.
Kistner’s lack of transparency around his personal finances has been a focal point during his latest campaign for Congress. In July, Kistner’s campaign filed a personal financial disclosure two months after the May 16 deadline – a violation of federal law.
“The story of Tyler Kistner’s sketchy mileage reimbursements is truly never ending. Kistner could easily put this to bed if he really wanted to — just release the travel logs,” said Angie Craig for Congress campaign manager Wellesley Daniels. “It’s not just the mileage — he filed his financial disclosure two months late and he won’t reveal his consulting clients. It’s possible that Kistner is so deep in his lies he can no longer tell right from wrong.”