By Matthew Holloway |

A Monday report revealed that at least three attorneys associated with the Republican party and identified by the Associated Press as Arizona’s Amanda Reeve and Brett Johnson of the law firm Snell & Wilmer, and Paul Hamrick an Alabama-based attorney, have been working hard to ensure independent presidential candidate Cornel West is placed on the ballot in Arizona.

According to the AP reporting, the two Arizona lawyers, Reeve and Johnson, were working with Hamrick to reach two of the alleged Electoral College electors for West after learning that they were no longer interested in serving as electors, in what the outlet described as a “barrage” of text messages and phone calls culminating in visits to their homes.

Under Arizona election law, independent candidates for president must present a slate of electors committed to casting Electoral College votes for them. Without these electors, the effort to put West on the ballot was doomed to fail.

In text messages obtained by the reporters, one of the electors, Jerry Judie, 62, of Phoenix, told an operative working for the campaign via text, “I am officially no longer interested in being elector.” The unnamed operative had been trying to convince him to meet and sign documentation.

Judie had reportedly been an avid West supporter for at least three decades and was excited to be a part of the campaign, but when President Joe Biden stepped aside, it “changed the game.”

He told the AP, “When she was in the driver’s seat, that changed the game. That changed everything for me, my family, and the people that I know. It was like magic.”

In a voicemail to Judie given to the AP, Alabama attorney Paul Hamrick is heard to say, “I am sorry … we have been calling the crap out of you, the reason we have been trying to get in touch with you is we found out in the last 24 hours we have got to have everybody sign a letter that Dr. West has also signed.” The outlet noted that Hamrick stated he knew that Judie was no longer interested in being an elector. Hamrick is reported to have asked “Is there anything you can tell me about that or has anyone encouraged you not to be?”

Judie later told the reporters that two people came to his home looking for him after the voicemail. A person who knows Judie spoke to them on his behalf, and they identified themselves as Reeve and Johnson. Both work for Snell & Wilmer, a firm known to represent the Republican National Committee as well as Republican candidates.

The second elector, Denisha Mitchell, was also contacted by phone by Reeve, according to the AP, after a story from the outlet broke Friday with Mitchell saying she signed an affidavit testifying she never agreed to be a West elector to begin with nor signed her name to a filing. She told the reporters that she “didn’t even know what an elector was,” and the filing was “forged,” and full of errors.

Reeve reportedly told Mitchell in a voicemail, “We need to get this information in as soon as possible.” He added that his firm is representing, “the Cornel West Campaign.”

Mitchell said that she missed a call but returned it and spoke with Hamrick. The Alabama attorney refuted this to the AP and refused to comment.

Speaking to reporters Judie reflected on the odd happenings of the week and said it left him uneasy. “They had only one reason they were doing it,” he said. “Just to get him on the ballot so some votes would go to him and not go to other people.”

West for his part seemed ambivalent to the situation in Arizona. He told the AP, “So much of American politics is highly gangster-like activity. I have no knowledge of who they are or anything — none whatsoever. We just want to get on that ballot. And that’s the difficult thing.”

Per the outlet, the Arizona Secretary of State’s office said that the West campaign did not file the paperwork necessary to get on the ballot by Saturday’s deadline.

Matthew Holloway is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.