FOX News Channel television and radio host Bill O'Reilly erroneously claimed that Senator John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, has “really funded [Kerry's] campaign to a large extent.” O'Reilly made this false claim on the October 13 edition of The Radio Factor.

As Media Matters for America has noted, Heinz Kerry is legally allowed to contribute only the maximum individual donation of $2,000 to her husband's campaign. And as USA Today reported in a June 2003 article titled “Kerry campaign says he can't tap wife's fortune”: “Under federal campaign law, assets solely under the control of Heinz Kerry, including those reported on Kerry's recent Senate disclosure form, cannot be used for the Democrat's presidential campaign.”

As The Washington Post reported, when the Kerry campaign was running out of money during the primary season, Kerry mortgaged his half of the home he shares with Heinz Kerry in Boston and put the $6.4 million toward his own campaign.