An aide to Orlando Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost says he has paid back $4,000 in debt that he owed to Bank of America.
BofA filed a complaint against Frost in small claims court in Orange County on Aug. 18, citing his failure to pay off the $4,000 credit card debt. In its complaint, the bank claimed that Frost had “failed to make periodic payments and the account was subsequently charged-off.”
A spokesperson for Frost says that once he learned about the complaint last week, he went ahead and repaid the money he owed.
“Congressman Frost has always been honest about his past experiences with credit card debt as a result of having to leave his full-time job to run for Congress,” said Frost communications director Samantha Ramirez in a written statement to the Phoenix. “This is a sad reality that keeps too many working people from seeking public office. In this particular case, Rep. Frost has already paid the balance of his debt and the associated legal fees, and the matter has been resolved.”
Court records do not yet reflect any payment. According to the docket, Frost was scheduled to attend a virtual pretrial conference regarding the claim on Oct. 11.
At 26, Frost is the youngest person serving in Congress.
After winning office in Florida’s Tenth Congressional District race last fall, he made news when he acknowledged that he was struggling to find housing in the expensive Washington, D.C., area because of his bad credit record. In a tweet he wrote on X, then Twitter, last December, Frost said, “For those asking, I have bad credit cause I ran up a lot of debt running for Congress for a year and a half. Didn’t make enough money from Uber itself to pay for my living.”
Members of Congress make $174,000 a year.
According to his financial disclosure form filed in May, however, Frost made less than $5,000 between Jan. 1 and Dec, 31, 2022. Most of that was from driving for Uber, although he also made $1,383 in “production dispatch” for Goldenvoice, the concert promoting company responsible for putting on the Coachella Festival.
This article originally appeared in florida phoenix