Carl Boyanton, an independent candidate running for the 4th Congressional District, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell, accepted more money from campaign donors than the law allows.
Boyanton, a business owner, filed the report against Ezell in June and focuses on seven members of the Chouest family, which owns shipbuilding company Edison Chouest Offshore. They donated to Ezell, who chairs the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. Congress awarded the company a $950 million contract.
“This is a classic pay-to-play scheme where special interests and billionaires think they can buy a Mississippi Congressman,” Boyanton said in a statement. “South Mississippians deserve a representative who answers to them, not to wealthy campaign donors or defense contractors seeking special favors.”
Josh Gregory, Ezell’s campaign manager, said in a statement that the campaign complies with federal campaign finance law.
“While Mr. Boyanton’s allegations are obviously a political stunt, making a false statement to a federal agency, such as the FEC, is illegal and we will be reporting him for doing that,” Gregory said. “In the meantime, voters will have their say when they defeat him for the fourth time on November 3.”
The complaint centers on a joint fundraising committee called the Ezell Victory Fund, which Ezell’s campaign formed with the National Republican Congressional Committee and his leadership PAC, New Sheriff PAC.
The complaint alleges that seven members of the Chouest family, in August 2025, each gave $3,500 to Ezell’s primary campaign and $3,500 to his general election campaign, maxing out the $7,000-per-cycle limit an individual can give directly to a candidate, totaling $49,000.
The family also donated another $150,000 to the joint fundraising committee: $10,000 each from five family members and $50,000 each from Gary and Carolyn Chouest.
The complaint argues that when the Ezell Victory Fund later transferred $47,625 of that money to Ezell’s campaign committee on Sept. 18, 2025, it amounted to funneling additional Chouest family money to the campaign beyond federal limits.
But it’s unclear if what Boyanton is alleging actually took place because FEC records don’t typically show a donor-by-donor breakdown when a joint fundraising committee transfers a lump sum into a candidate’s personal fundraising committee.
Federal rules require a joint fundraising committee to divide each donor’s contribution among its participating committees so that no individual’s total contribution to any one committee, whether given directly or through a joint account, exceeds that donor’s limit for that committee.
Even if Ezell violated the law, he is unlikely to face penalties anytime soon because the FEC, which is supposed to regulate campaign finances, doesn’t even have enough confirmed members to meet, let alone consider complaints, according to a recent report from the New York Times.
Boyanton also alleges that the contractor and Ezell broke the law because contractors who receive money from Congress are prohibited from directly donating money to candidates and committees.
But federal law does not prohibit individuals who have an ownership stake in a contractor company from making individual donations.
Ezell, Boyanton and Democratic nominee Jeffrey Hulum will compete against each other during the general election on Nov. 3.
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