End Citizens United (ECU) today filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against the Cornel West campaign and several GOP-affiliated groups potentially spending millions to get him on the ballot in North Carolina and Arizona. The complaint centers on a multi-state scheme involving excessive and illegal in-kind contributions and coordinated expenditures that flagrantly violate federal law.
“Cornel West and the GOP groups conspiring to get him on the ballot are engaging in a brazen scheme to undermine the presidential election,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “The sheer scale of this operation, spanning multiple states, involves millions of dollars being illegally spent to get West on the ballot. This level of collusion sets an incredibly dangerous precedent for election interference. With less than 100 days until the election, the FEC must immediately investigate Cornel West and every GOP group involved in this scheme and hold them accountable for these egregious violations.”
The complaint lays out a clear and brazen pattern of illegal activity in which Republican political operatives, dark money groups, and a network of organized and well-funded individuals and corporations have conspired on both national and state levels to unlawfully assist the West campaign. This includes millions of dollars’ worth of signature gathering, organizing, and other services related to ballot access.
Cornel West’s campaign illegally accepted these services. It has proven to be incapable of securing these services due to lack of support, volunteer activity, and financial resources. The complicated nature of petition gathering for presidential candidates makes it virtually impossible for these activities to occur without direct coordination between the West Campaign and the colluding outside actors. Evidence shows that such coordination has been occurring.
The Complaint:
- The extent of the illegal effort to support the West Campaign first came into focus in April. One Republican petition circulator gathering signatures for the West Campaign was filmed at a Donald Trump rally in Wilmington, North Carolina on April 20, 2024, telling a potential signer of a petition in support of Cornel West that the purpose of the collection was to “help take away votes from Joe Biden.”
- This was not a one-time occurrence: when the North Carolina State Board of Elections conducted an investigation into the West Campaign’s petition efforts this summer, it was revealed that of the more than 30,000 signatures collected to get Cornel West on the ballot, the West Campaign could account for fewer than 3,000 of those signatures; the rest were likely gathered by unaffiliated entities and individuals, many with Republican affiliations, none of whom were paid by the West Campaign.
- Similarly in Arizona, over 200 paid circulators have registered this cycle with the Arizona Secretary of State to circulate nominating petitions for Cornel West. A majority of these paid circulators registered as working for Wells Marketing, LLC, a signature collection firm with strong Republican ties which, again, has not received any compensation for these costly services by the West Campaign.
- The West Campaign must pursue the least expensive route because it is functionally broke – at the end of June, the West Campaign reported having just $24,520.37 cash on hand, with $16,958.43 in debts owed. It has spent a total of $12,173 on petition and ballot access efforts in all of 2024, including $0 on petitioning and ballot access services in May and just $753 on the same in June.
- Yet the West Campaign has somehow maintained a robust nationwide paid signature-gathering presence – an operation that, in North Carolina and Arizona alone, would cost an estimated $2,300,000.
- It is clear that the West Campaign is not paying for these efforts, yet the campaign’s submission to date of tens of thousands of signatures in North Carolina, Michigan, Georgia, Utah and New Mexico plainly demonstrate that someone else is. Respondents took steps to conceal this off-the-books petition gathering operation in violation of federal law.
- There is sufficient reason to believe that the West Campaign, other Respondents named in this Complaint, and future Respondents yet unknown violated the Act by making, accepting, and/or facilitating excessive and illegal in-kind contributions and excessive and illegal coordinated expenditures.
- The FEC should pursue appropriate sanctions for all violations, and it should pursue additional remedies as necessary and appropriate to procure compliance with the Act and corresponding Commission regulations, including any referrals for knowing and willful violations.
Click here to read the full complaint.
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