Kanye West Puts $6.8 Million Into Presidential Bid
Kanye West has put $6.76 million into his presidential campaign, including millions to political operatives to help him get on the ballot.
West launched the campaign in July, and has qualified for the ballot in 10 states, including Minnesota, Iowa and Colorado. Over the last several weeks, numerous links to Republican-aligned lawyers have raised concerns that West’s campaign is siphoning Black votes away from Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Judges in Arizona and Virginia, meanwhile, have removed his name from the ballot.
West’s campaign finance report, filed on Friday, shows that the campaign paid $1.28 million to Atlas Strategy Group for “ballot access services.” The firm is run by Gregg Keller, a former executive director of the American Conservative Union and a longtime figure in Republican politics in Missouri. In the 2016 cycle, Keller did work for Ben Carson and Scott Walker, who were each running for the Republican presidential nomination.
West campaign has spent $5.87 million so far. Of that, $2.7 million went to Millennial Strategies, based in Long Island, N.Y., which has worked on Democratic campaigns, including the Pete Buttigieg presidential campaign. The firm has been paid for ballot access services and polling.
The campaign also spent $1.5 million on Fortified Consulting, based in Tempe, Ariz. Politico reported that Fortified Consulting shares an address with Lincoln Strategy Group, which did work in 2016 for President Trump’s campaign as well as the campaign of Carly Fiorina.
The campaign also received $11,472 in outside contributions, of which $3,850 came in large enough amounts to be individually reported. West’s biggest donors are Mac Tylor, of San Francisco, who works in design at Apple, and Laurence Chandler, a fashion designer who has helped on West’s clothing line. Each gave the campaign $1,000.
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