Watchdog Questions Zeldin’s Tour With Embattled GOP Candidates

It’s not unusual for Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin to be on the road touting the Trump administration’s agenda, but his travel itinerary in the weeks before the midterm election looks like a trail of political hot spots.

On Thursday, Zeldin traveled to an auto repair shop and a construction firm in central Pennsylvania with Rep. Scott Perry, one of the most endangered Republicans in Congress. Earlier in the week, Zeldin was in Iowa with Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is in a neck-and-neck race for the state’s open Senate seat. Zeldin later headed to a family farm in Wisconsin with Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who is fighting to keep his seat representing the state’s 3rd Congressional District.

Zeldin’s slew of stops with candidates—all promoted with press releases from EPA headquarters—generates concern, in the view of the political watchdog group that is taking on a $20 million taxpayer-funded advertising campaign praising Trump and his administration.

“It does raise questions on whether the EPA administrator is engaged in political activity in a way that violates the Hatch Act,” said Kedric Payne, senior director of ethics for the Campaign Legal Center, referring to the 87-year-old law that limits the political activities of federal employees. Although cabinet officials like Zeldin get more leeway under that law than most civil servants to attend campaign events and the like, they are not permitted to use taxpayer resources to do so.

“With the use of the EPA and its press and communications shop to put a spotlight on this travel, an investigator truly needs to know what is being said at these gatherings,” Payne said.

Federal employees whose travel is supported by taxpayers can violate the Hatch Act even if they don’t explicitly urge people to vote for a candidate, he said. The series of taxpayer-funded ads the Campaign Legal Center and others sued over did not call for support of any political candidate, but a federal judge blocked the TV spots until after the election.

Payne said there is often “a fine line” between permissible and impermissible activities under the Hatch Act. The determination hinges on whether there could be any other explanation for the cabinet official’s activity, other than promoting a candidate.

An EPA spokesperson said Zeldin’s visits are fact-finding ventures and part of his job as the nation’s top environmental regulator.

“Administrator Zeldin’s travels are driven by one thing: his commitment to getting regulators out of Washington to meet with the regulated,” the spokesperson said. “Every day of each of these trips, Administrator Zeldin has asked for feedback from Americans on what the Trump EPA can do better, and he’s taking that feedback back to D.C. to make decisions.

“His main message to people wherever he goes is that EPA is back to its core mission, protecting human health and the environment, and we want to know how we can do that better,” the spokesperson said.

One environmental aide in a past administration who spoke on background said it was not unusual for cabinet members to fan out across the country to sell their accomplishments.

For example, during President Joe Biden’s administration, EPA Administrator Michael Regan made one visit with a member of Congress in the month prior to the 2022 midterm elections. Regan traveled with Rep. Pat Ryan of New York, a Democrat, who was then in a fight to keep his seat, to see an EPA-managed asbestos removal site in Ulster County. In 2024, none of the visits Regan made with members of Congress were in contested districts. In one case he traveled with Republicans, Sen. Thom Tillis and Rep. Chuck Edwards of North Carolina, to see the impacts of Hurricane Helene.

But under Trump, who held the 2020 Republican National Convention on the grounds of the White House, the lines between federal activity and political activity often have blurred. 

The Atlantic reported last month that the Trump White House had launched an unofficial competition encouraging cabinet secretaries to travel the country to promote the administration agenda in advance of the midterm elections, with officials getting points for visits to politically competitive districts or states and getting docked for visits to solidly blue areas. By The Atlantic’s count, seven other cabinet members had eclipsed Zeldin’s visits to political hot spots during the summer.

But in recent weeks, in addition to his trips to Iowa, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Zeldin made what an EPA press release called a “three-day swing” across Michigan with two Republicans whose races will be crucial to deciding congressional control: Rep. Bill Huizenga and Rep. Tom Barrett. Zeldin also traveled to Maricopa County, Arizona, which has a close congressional race and two states with key Senate races—Maine and New Hampshire—although he did not travel with any candidates on those trips.

According to EPA press releases, Zeldin’s October visits to battleground districts resembled other stops he has made in a tenure that took him to all 50 states within his first nine months in office, touting the Trump agenda. In Iowa with Hinson, Zeldin unveiled an “American Farmer First” policy including support for corn ethanol demand. In Pennsylvania, four days later, Zeldin appeared with Perry, who in a debate with his challenger the previous night said that he wanted federal support for ethanol ended. Zeldin and Perry focused on Trump’s deregulatory agenda and how they say it has helped small business. And in Wisconsin, Zeldin talked about how the Trump administration had lifted a requirement for anti-pollution sensors on diesel engines that were blamed for engine failures and shutdowns.

The message that the Trump administration is putting American farmers first and lowering costs comes when Republicans are facing headwinds from the pain Trump’s tariffs and the Iran War run-up in energy prices, especially diesel fuel, has inflicted on consumers.

“Polls show Americans are fed up with President Trump ignoring high prices,” said David Kieve, president of EDF Action, the political advocacy partner of Environmental Defense Fund, which is campaigning to upend Republican control of Congress. “As EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin cherry-picks districts for photo opps,” Kieve said in an email, “I hope voters ask why he keeps pushing dirty, expensive energy over cheaper, cleaner options.”