A6 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, AUGUST 10 , 2020
election 2020
BY ROSALIND S. HELDERMAN
AND JOSH DAWSEYOne elector trying to get rapper
Kanye West on the presidential
ballot in Wisconsin is married to a
former chairwoman of a Republi-
can county committee and was
photographed with President
Trump at his inauguration.
In Arkansas, a Republican op-
erative who signed West’s ballot
petition was at one point inter-
viewed to be Trump’s campaign
manager for his 2016 bid.
And West’s ballot petition in
Ohio was signed by a lawyer who
has previously represented state
Republican campaign commit-
tees.
West’s presidential effort has
largely sputtered since he formal-
ly filed to run as an independent
candidate representing the
“Birthday Party” in July. He has
held just one campaign rally last
month in North Charleston, S.C.,
where he appeared onstage wear-
ing a b ulletproof vest and broke
down in tears, prompting his wife,
Kim Kardashian West, to post
messages on Instagram asking for
the public’s “compassion and em-
path y” as he struggles with bipo-
lar disorder.
But in at least five states, Re-
publican activists and operatives
— including some who have pub-
licly supported Trump and a law-
yer who has worked for his 2020
campaign — have been involved
with efforts to try to get the rapper
on the November ballot, accord-
ing to an examination by The
Washington Post of public filings
and social media posts. Their in-
volvement raises the specter that
his candidacy is being propped up
by a GOP-driven effort to siphon
votes from presumptive Demo-
cratic nominee Joe Biden.
Trump told reporters this past
week he had “nothing to do” with
helping West get on the ballot but
added that he li kes West “very
much.”
Jason Miller, a senior campaign
adviser, also said the Trump cam-
paign was not involved in helping
West get on the ballot.
But rather than discouraging
the effort to put another competi-
tor on the ballot, Miller added that
he believes West’s efforts on behalf
of prison sentencing reform have
been “admirable.”
“ ‘All of the Lights’ is a great
song. The full extended mix of
‘Runaway’ might actually be my
favorite. That’s one of my jams,”
Miller said when asked about the
West effort.
A spokesperson for West’s cam-
paign did not respond to requests
for comment. Asked by a reporter
for Forbes Magazine this past
week if his goal was to take votes
from Biden, West said in a text
message he was “walking... to
win.” Told he could serve as a
spoiler in the race, West r espond-
ed, “I’m not going to argue with
you. Jesus is King.”
West’s shoestring campaign ap-
pears to consist solely of a bare
bones website that until Saturday
featured only a hand-scrawled
message from the performer, ask-
ing supporters to sign a petition to
help him get on the South Caroli-
na ballot. He did not ultimately
submit paperwork in that state,
where he held his sole rally, before
the July 20 deadline.
His newly updated site fe atures
a montage of disparate images,
including a picture of Jesus and a
photograph of Earth from space,
along with 10-point policy plat-
form that includes restoring
prayer to the classroom, reducing
household debt burdens and
criminal justice reform — along
with an invitation to donate to his
campaign.
West’s campaign has so far filed
petitions to appear on the ballot in
10 states, but some of those sub-
missions, as in New Jersey, have
been found insufficient by state
officials.
Others are still being reviewed.
On Friday, of ficials in Illinois
fo und that 60 percent of the signa-
tures the campaign submitted
th ere were invalid, leaving West
without the required 2,500 signa-
tures to appear on the ballot. The
campaign can challenge the find-
ing.
Despite his campaign’s strug-
gles, there has been a flurry of
activity by GOP operatives to get
him on the ballot in recent weeks.
The effort has been particularly
striking in the swing state of
Wisconsin, where Trump defeated
Democratic presidential nominee
Hillary Clinton by fewer than
23,000 votes in 2016. Studies have
shown that turnout among Wis-
consin’s Black voters dipped sig-
nificantly that year, likely contrib-
uting to Clinton’s loss. They are
expected to play a key role in the
presidential vote again in Novem-
ber.
On Tuesday, as local reporters
watched, West’s ballot petition
was delivered to state regulators
by Lane Ruhland, a Madison law-
yer who is the former general
counsel for the state Republican
Party.
Just weeks ago, Ruhland was
listed as an attorney representing
the Trump campaign on a docu-
ment filed in a lawsuit against a
local television station, according
to court records. She did not
respond to requests for comment.
To get on the ballot, Wisconsin
law requires a candidate to submit
signatures from between 2,
and 4,000 state residents and
identify 10 people who would
serve as electors should the candi-
date win the state.
Of the 10 electors listed on
West’s petition, The Post found atleast six appear to have ties to the
Republican Party.
They included Fred Krumberg-
er, whose wife, Marian, is the
immediate past chairwoman of
Wisconsin’s Brown County Re-
publican committee. According to
pictures she posted on Facebook,
the two attended Trump’s inaugu-
ration in 20 17 and were photo-
graphed with the new president at
an event, standing in front of the
U.S. and Wisconsin flags as Trump
flashed his signature two thumbs
up.
Another West elector, JM Mc -
Koy, is listed as an officer on the
website of the Young Wisconsin
Republicans. The Facebook page
of a third West elector, Terri Stein-becker, features a banner that
includes Trump’s name and a bald
eagle and a profile picture featur-
ing the slogan of the conspiracy
theory movement QAnon.
A fourth, Jordan Wieland, has
tweeted that he is the brother-in-
law of Joe Fadness, the campaign
manager of Republican Wiscon-
sin Gov. Scott Walker’s unsuccess-
ful 2 018 reelection bid.
Neither Fadness nor any of the
electors responded to requests for
comment.
Alesha Guenther, a spokes-
woman for the Republican Party
of Wisconsin, did not answer
questions about whether the party
played a role in compiling West’s
petition and, if so, why.
But she said in a statement that
it appeared “the Kanye West cam-
paign made a smart decision by
hiring an experienced election at-
torney.”
“We welcome Kanye West and
all other candidates who qualified
for ballot access to the race, and
look forward to delivering Wis-
consin’s 10 ele ctoral votes to Presi-dent Trump,” she added.
The effort to get West on the
ballot was decried by David Crow-
ley, a D emocrat who took office in
May as the first Black executive of
Milwaukee County. Crowley said
the effort appeared aimed at peel-
ing off minority voters to boost
Trump.
“This is the Republican Party
really trying to take advantage of
someone’s mental state,” he said,
referring to West’s bipolar disor-
der. “It’s appalling. It’s insulting.
Quite frankly, I can’t believe
th ey’re really doing it.”
Crowley said he believes Black
voters would see through the ef-
fort.
“We want them to know we willnot be tricked,” he said. “If he is on
the ballot, we will tell the commu-
nity what this strategy is and not
let them be confused by the Re-
publican Party and Donald
Trump.”
Two formal challenges to West’s
candidacy were filed on behalf of
five Wisconsin voters on Friday,
arguing among other things that
his forms were filed just past a
5 p.m. deadline on Tuesday and
that they failed to include West’s
home address, as required by state
law.
One included signed affidavits
from people who had signed the
petition for his candidacy but said
afterward that they were misled
about its purpose. One said he was
told only that it was related to
voting. A nother said she was told
she s hould sign simply to indicate
that she was registered to vote.
“Kanye West would not get my
vote, and I think it’s a j oke that he’s
running for president,” the voter
swore.
West’s campaign has until the
end of the Monday to respond.State officials will decide likely
later this month whether he has
qualified for the Wisconsin ballot.
Before declaring his candidacy,
West repeatedly praised Trump,
saying the two shared “dragon
energy.” In October 2018, West
visited Trump in the Oval Office at
the White House, a surreal scene
in which the rapper sat across the
Resolute Desk from the president,
rattling on incoherently about the
13th Amendment, American man-
ufacturing and his own mental
health, dropping profanities in
the process.
He wore a r ed “Make America
Great Again” hat and repeatedly
complimented Trump, who nod-
ded, speechless for once, as re-
porters and TV cameras looked
on.
West behaved so err atically that
even Trump was taken aback,
asking aides afterward, “What
was up with him?” according to a
former senior administration offi-
cial, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity to describe the private
conversation.
Trump son-in-law Jared Kush-
ner argued that hosting West and
Kardashian West, who worked
closely with the White House on
an effort to revise criminal sen-
tencing rules, could improve the
president’s standing with Black
voters, according to the official,
who said Trump was swayed by
the electoral argument.
Not long before West an-
nounced his candidacy, the host
committee for Trump’s conven-
tion in Jacksonville discussed in-
viting the rapper to perform a
“revi val-style” concert on the eve
of the GOP convention, according
to a person familiar with the
discussions, a s ign that Trump’s
staff have in recent weeks viewed
the rapper as an ally and asset.
It is unclear if West still felt that
way.
Shortly before he formally en-
tered the race, West said that the
campaign was his way of “taking
the red hat off,” telling Forbes that
he did not li ke that Trump “hid” in
a White House bunker duringsocial justice protests in June.
That has not stopped Republi-
cans from working to get him on
the ballot.
In Arkansas, West’s petition
was signed by Gregg Keller, a
longtime Republican operative
who is the former executive direc-
tor of the American Conservative
Union.
Sam Nunberg, a former Trump
adviser, said he brought Keller to
meet with Trump twice beginning
in late 2014, hoping Keller would
become campaign manager. The
Post reviewed a memo prepared
by Nunberg and given to Trump
that laid out Keller’s qualifications
for the manager job.
“ Trump liked him,” Nunberg
said.
Keller did not respond to re-
quests for comment.
In Colorado, Vice News ob-
tained an email written by Repub-
lican strategist Rachel George, a
former aide to GOP Sen. Cory
Gardner, seeking fellow Republi-
cans to serve as West electors.
“I have the most random favor
to ask of you ever... would you
help me get Ka nye West on the
ballot in Colorado?” wrote George,
who did not respond to requests
for comment.
“No, I am not joking, and I
realize this is hilarious,” she add-
ed.
As New York Magazine first
reported, Georg e’s husband also
leads a Republican strategy firm
that was paid more than $92,
by the Republican National Com-
mittee earlier this year.
Some clues about who is be-
hind the effort could come
Aug. 20, when West is required by
law to report his fundraising and
spending for the month of July to
the Federal Election Commis-
sion.
Polls show that Black voters are
overwhelmingly opposed to
Trump. But his campaign has re-
peatedly worked to try dampen
support for Democrats in the Afri-
can American community. In the
last election, Trump’s campaign
circulated social media memes
highlighting that Clinton had sup-
ported harsh criminal sentencing
rules enacted while her husband
was president in the 1990s.
In recent days, Trump has been
hitting Biden for an interview in
which the former vice president
said “unlike the African American
community, with notable excep-
tions, the Latino community is an
incredibly diverse community
with incredibly different atti-
tu des.”
The suggestion that Black vot-
ers have monolithic opinions —
which Biden said later he did not
mean — prompted Trump to tweet
Friday, “After yesterday's state-
ment, Sleepy Joe Biden is no lon-
ger worthy of the Black Vote!”
Trump campaign pollsters have
told other advisers they do not
know how a West campaign
wou ld affect the White House
contest.
But Nunberg, who worked for
Trump for four years as he pre-
pared his presidential run b efore
they had a falling-out in 2015, said
the effort to get West on the ballot
was the kind of political scheme
that would both appeal to Trump
— and potentially help him.
“Does the Biden campaign
want Kanye West campaigning in
Cleveland, in Cincinnati, in Mil-
waukee?” he asked. “I don’t think
they do.”
[email protected]
[email protected]Alice Crites contributed to this report.Kanye West’s bid bolstered by GOP operatives in 5 states
LAUREN PETRACCA IPETRACCA/POST AND COURIER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kanye West holds a rally in North Charleston, S.C., in July. His bid has sputtered since he filed to run representing the “Birthday Party,”
but Republicans, including some who have publicly supported President Trump, have been involved in trying to get him on the ballot.“This is the Republican Party really trying to take
advantage of someone’s mental state.”
David Crowley, executive of Milwaukee County in Wisconsin(202) 919-
(703) 650-
(301) 778-