Multiple political operatives with ties to the GOP are working with Kanye West as the rapper attempts to lift his long-shot presidential campaign off the ground.
Petitioning company Let the Voters Decide is helping West with this endeavor in Ohio, West Virginia and Arkansas. The organization is headed by Mark Jacoby, who was arrested on charges of voter fraud while working in California for the Republican Party in 2008, The New York Times reported.
He later plead guilty to a misdemeanor. Jacoby told the Times that Let the Voters Decide is non-partisan.
“We do not comment on any current clients, but like all Americans, anyone who is qualified to stand for election has the right to run,” Jacoby said.
News of the connections come as West, who announced his bid for the White House on July 4, is attempting to get himself on the ballot in several states, including Wisconsin, Ohio, West Virginia and Arkansas.
The award-winning musician and producer has already missed the filing deadline is a slew of states including South Carolina, North Carolina, New Mexico, Texas, Michigan, Florida and Indiana.
In Illinois, Missouri and New Jersey, West obtained the required number of signatures to appear on the ballot, but has been slapped with allegations of election fraud in New Jersey over his signature submissions. Officials in Illinois are challenging his signatures and paperwork as well.
The Times reported that Gregg Keller, former executive director of the American Conservative Union, is listed as a contact for West’s campaign in Arkansas.
Based in Missouri, Keller was on the shortlist to become President Trump’s campaign manager in 2015, a former campaign official told the newspaper.
The Times also reported that Chuck Wilton, a convention delegate for the president from Vermont, has also been linked to the West campaign.
West, a once staunch supporter of Trump, said in an interview with Forbes that he was “taking the red hat off,” referencing the president’s signature “Make America Great Again” hat that West has publicly worn in the past.
“It looks like one big mess to me,” West, 43, added. “One of the main reasons I wore the red hat as a protest to the segregation of votes in the Black community. … Also, other than the fact that I like Trump hotels and the saxophones in the lobby.”
West received just 2 percent of the vote in a national poll last month.