Kris Kobach used the email list of a privately funded border wall project to goose his own Senate campaign, potentially violating campaign finance law.
The Daily Beast first reported on the email.
In an email to the mailing list of “We Build The Wall,” the GoFundMe-powered border wall group that recently built a strip of border wall in New Mexico, Kobach implored, “As a donor to WeBuildTheWall, I humbly ask you to support my run for the Senate.” The email included various dollar amounts and a link to the Kobach campaign’s fundraising page.
Above a “Kobach for Senate” graphic at the bottom of the email, Kobach, the former Kansas Secretary of State who lost a gubernatorial bid in 2018, signed off as “General Counsel, WeBuildTheWall.”
The email could run afoul of campaign finance laws, as the Daily Beast noted.
For example, there was no “paid for by” disclaimer at the bottom of Kobach’s email, and it’s unclear whether Kobach’s campaign compensated We Build The Wall for using its mailing list. Contact information from groups like We Build The Wall, which has raised $25 million on GoFundMe and has a nationwide network of support on social media, is a valuable campaign commodity.
Neither Kobach’s Campaign nor We Build The Wall, whose project TPM recently reported was actually spilling into Mexico, returned TPM’s requests for comment.
