Rapper’s campaign is an insult to Black voters

Don’t think Donald Trump is worried about winning Arizona?

Two words: Kanye West.

It seems the billionaire rapper has taken off his MAGA hat and is now working to give Arizonans a chance to vote for him for president.

Andrew Chavez, who runs Petition Partners, on Thursday tweeted that West’s campaign has begun circulating petitions in the state, paying $8 per signature to get on the ballot.

Given that West would need at least 39,039 signatures by Sept. 24, that’s likely a half-a-million-dollar outlay.

Sure, it’s small change for a billionaire, but it’s also money down the drain considering that he cannot win.

That is, unless winning isn’t the goal.

West is a longtime Trump supporter who suddenly split with the president in July and announced he was mounting an independent campaign to run against his old friend.

Yet Trump, who is not generally known for his tolerance of disloyalty in the ranks, recently lauded his old friend Kanye, saying he’s got “a good heart, very good heart.”

“I like Kanye very much,” Trump said earlier this month. “No, I have nothing to do with him getting on the ballot. We’ll have to see what happens. We’ll see if he gets on the ballot. But I’m not involved.”

Meanwhile, Republican operatives, some with ties to Trump, have been working on West’s campaign to get on the ballot in a variety of states.

In Ohio, West’s campaign paperwork was filed by a law firm that has done more than $80,000 worth of work for the House and Senate Republican campaign committees since 2015.

In Colorado, West’s bid was helped by Rachel George, a Republican operative who emailed at least one other Republican operative asking for “the most random favor” — to serve as one of the nine electors necessary to get West on the ballot.

In Wisconsin, Lane Ruhland, a GOP election lawyer who has worked for a long list of GOP heavyweights in Wisconsin, and is currently representing the campaign of President Donald Trump in a lawsuit, was filmed earlier this month running up to the election commission building in Madison, Wisc., to drop off signatures for West.

West missed the deadline to qualify in 25 states and Washington, D.C.

But thus far, he’s made the ballot in Iowa, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Vermont and Utah and is awaiting word in Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia and Minnesota.

He failed to qualify in New Jersey, Illinois and Montana, and this week, he missed the deadline to file in Wisconsin – a key battleground state – by

14 seconds.

Now he’s eyeing battleground state.

Arizona Mirror’s

Arizona,

another

Jeremy Duda

reports that West’s Arizona campaign is being run by National Ballot Access, a company known for working on conservative and Republican issues.

No word on who’s paying work.

It’s seems pretty clear what’s going on here.

A longtime Trump pal suddenly hip

for

that hops off the MAGA mobile in July to run against his “former” friend.

He cannot win. He can, however, siphon votes from Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump won Arizona by just 91,000 votes in 2016 and polls show him trailing Biden.

So here comes Kanye, the shiny object on the ballot, there to ensure that

Trump can eke out another win in Arizona.

This isn’t an insurgent campaign. It’s an insult to Black voters and a dirty trick.

One that in a close election just might work.