Harris is traversing the country in hopes of nabbing the White House. She’s going to have to try harder if she wants to make it.
Because the GOP revealed their silver bullet against Kamala Harris.
Italo Medelius was spearheading a volunteer effort to get Cornel West on North Carolina’s presidential ballot last spring when he got an unexpected call from a man named Paul who offered to help.
While Medelius, the co-chairman of West’s “Justice for All Party,” was initially grateful for the assistance, it quickly became clear that this offer would complicate his life. The involvement of his new allies provoked threats and drew him into a state election board investigation into their motivations, backgrounds, and questionable tactics.
Unfortunately, Medelius’s experience isn’t unique. Across the country, a network of Republican political operatives, lawyers, and their allies are working to influence the November election in ways that favor former President Donald Trump. Their strategy? Elevating third-party candidates like West who could siphon votes away from Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.
Though it’s unclear who’s funding this effort, it has the potential to make a significant impact in key battleground states that were narrowly won by Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
Cornel West’s campaign, which lacks substantial funding, has welcomed this external support. Last month, West told the Associated Press that “American politics is highly gangster-like activity,” adding that he “just wanted to get on that ballot.”
Trump has been vocal in his support for West, calling him “one of my favorite candidates.” His admiration for Green Party candidate Jill Stein is also well-known.
Trump’s reasoning is simple: “I like her very much. You know why? She takes 100% from them. He takes 100%.” Trump’s strategy is clear — boost third-party candidates to draw votes away from Democrats.
Democrats, for their part, are reportedly exploring ways to lift Randall Terry, an anti-abortion presidential candidate for the Constitution Party, in hopes that he could draw voters away from Trump.
However, the GOP’s efforts appear to be more expansive and underhanded. Despite years of Trump accusing Democrats of “rigging” elections, it is now his allies who are engaging in a sprawling and, at times, deceptive campaign to tilt the vote in his favor.
Edward B. Foley, a law professor who leads Ohio State University’s election law program, weighed in on the situation: “The fact that either of the two major parties would attempt financially and otherwise to support a third-party spoiler candidate as part of its effort to win is an unfortunate byproduct” of current election laws “that facilitate spoilers.” Foley emphasized that this phenomenon is equally problematic regardless of which major party engages in it.
A key figure in the Republican push is Paul Hamrick, the man who reached out to Medelius in North Carolina.
Hamrick serves as counsel for the Virginia-based nonprofit People Over Party, which has been working to get West on the ballot in states like Arizona, Maine, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina.
In an interview, Hamrick refused to disclose who else was orchestrating the effort or who was funding it. He strongly denied being a Republican, though he admitted he wasn’t a Democrat either. Hamrick’s past is murky.
He served as chief of staff to former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, a one-term Democrat who was ousted from office in 2003 and later convicted on federal bribery, conspiracy, and mail fraud charges. Hamrick was also charged in two separate cases, one of which was dismissed, and he was acquitted in the other.
Despite his denials, Alabama state voting records show that Hamrick voted in Republican primaries in 2002, 2006, and 2010. He briefly worked for the Alabama state Senate’s Republican majority in 2011, and since 2015, his campaign contributions have been exclusively to GOP causes, including $2,500 to the Alabama Republican Party and $3,300 to Georgia Rep. Mike Collins, a Republican known for peddling conspiracy theories. Hamrick, however, claimed that the voting data was inaccurate.
For years, Hamrick was a consultant for Matrix LLC, an Alabama firm notorious for its aggressive tactics. Matrix LLC was involved in a scheme in Florida to run “ghost candidates” against officials who had angered Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest utility.
One target was Daniella Levine Cava, the current mayor of Miami-Dade County, who had clashed with FPL while serving as a county commissioner.
When she ran for reelection in 2018, Matrix covertly financed a third-party candidate in hopes of siphoning enough votes to unseat her.
According to the Miami Herald, Hamrick was deeply involved. A company he created paid the spoiler candidate a $60,000 salary and rented a $2,300-a-month home for him. Hamrick, however, denied any involvement in the man’s campaign, insisting that the candidate was merely working for him to recruit business.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
