In battleground states, a network of Republican political operatives and lawyers is trying to shape the November's election in favor of former President Donald Trump. They're propping up liberal third-party candidates such as Cornel West and Jill Stein in the hopes that those candidates will siphon off votes from Democrat Kamala Harris. The Associated Press reports one key figure is the former Chief of Staff to former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.
The Associated Press reports how Italo Medelius was leading a volunteer drive to put Cornel West on North Carolina's presidential ballot last spring when he received an unexpected call from a man named “Paul” who said he wanted to help. The AP reports that was Paul Hamrick, the man on the other end of the call with Medelius in North Carolina.
Hamrick serves as counsel for the Virginia-based nonprofit People Over Party, which has pushed to get West on the ballot in Arizona, Maine, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Virginia, as well as North Carolina, records show.
In an interview, Hamrick declined to say who else besides him was orchestrating the effort and he would not divulge who was funding it. He vigorously disputed any suggestion that he was a Republican, but acknowledged that he was not a Democrat, either.
His history is complex.
The APR reports Hamrick was chief of staff to former Alabama Governor Siegelman, a one-term Democrat who was booted from office in 2003 and later was convicted and sentenced to prison on federal bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud charges. Hamrick was charged alongside his former boss in two separate cases. One was dismissed and he was acquitted in the other.
Though he insists he is not a Republican, Hamrick voted in Alabama's Republican primary in 2002, 2006 and 2010, according to state voting records maintained by the political data firm L2. He was tapped briefly in 2011 to work for the Alabama state Senate's Republican majority. And since 2015, according to federal campaign finance disclosures, he has contributed only to GOP causes, including $2,500 to the Alabama Republican Party and $3,300 to Georgia Rep. Mike Collins, a Republican who has trafficked in conspiracy theories.
Hamrick denied that he voted in any Republican primaries, suggesting that the voting data was inaccurate.
For years, he was a consultant for Matrix LLC, an Alabama firm known for its hardball approach.
Matrix LLC was part of an effort in Florida to run "ghost candidates" against elected officials who had raised the ire of executives for Florida Power & Light, the state's largest utility.
Daniella Levine Cava, the current mayor of Miami-Dade County, was a target. As a county commissioner, Levine Cava had fought with FPL. When she ran for reelection in 2018, Matrix covertly financed a third-party candidate they hoped would siphon enough votes to tip her seat to a Republican challenger, The Miami Herald reported in 2022.
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, according to the newspaper and business filings made in Alabama. Hamrick said the candidate worked for him to help recruit business. Hamrick denied having anything to do with the man's campaign.
Either way, it did not work. Levine Cava was reelected before winning the mayor's seat in 2020.
Now Hamrick is playing a prominent role to place West's name on the ballot in competetive states. Hamrick surfaced in Arizona two weeks ago after a woman told the AP that a document was fraudulently submitted in her name to Arizona's secretary of state in which she purportedly agreed to serve as an elector for West. She said her signature was forged and she never agreed to be an elector.
After the AP published her account, Hamrick said he spoke to the woman's husband, trying to rectify the situation and "gave some information." Hamrick declined to say what information was shared. He also tried to persuade another elector who backed out to recommit to West, according to interviews and voicemails.
The next day, with the deadline to qualify for the Arizona ballot just hours away, Brett Johnson, a prominent Republican lawyer, and Amanda Reeve, a former GOP state lawmaker, made house visits to each as they tried to persuade both to sign new paperwork to serve as West electors.
Johnson and Reeve work for Snell & Wilmer, which has done $257,000 worth of business for the Republican National Committee over the past two years, campaign finance disclosures show.
Hamrick declined to comment on the role of Johnson and Reeve. They did not respond to requests for comment.
West did not qualify for the Arizona ballot.