When third-party voting access meets partisan interference: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online edition From the Political Deskis an evening newsletter bringing you the latest coverage and analysis from the election campaign, the White House and Congress from the NBC News political team.

In today’s edition, senior political reporter Alex Seitz-Wald uncovers efforts by operatives with ties to a Republican consulting firm to tip the election of Cornel West in key battleground states, plus chief Washington correspondent and foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell analyzes the current state of ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

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Republican operatives are helping Cornell West win elections in key states

Alex Seitz-Wald

Cornel West’s independent presidential campaign went bankrupt. His former campaign manager says he knew nothing about ballot access. And West Spent more In a recent campaign finance report, he said he was focusing more on graphic design than on petition gathering.

But thanks to a combination of self-organized grassroots volunteers and outside activists with ties to Republican consulting firms, tens of thousands of signatures were collected in key states on behalf of the well-known left-leaning academic.

Democrats are concerned that West could siphon votes from areas where President Joe Biden is running in close elections, and some Republicans have publicly discussed ways to boost West and other minor candidates such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Green Party’s Jill Stein in hopes of splitting the anti-Donald Trump coalition.

In North Carolina, a new party formed in the state to put West on the ballot announced Monday that more than 30,000 signatures had been submitted through an “all volunteer effort,” despite having virtually no oversight and not receiving “a penny” from West’s campaign.

But internal emails, social media posts and other evidence obtained by NBC News suggest that someone on the outside was trying to help West get on the ballot in North Carolina — although it’s unclear who, or how much they spent — even if his grassroots supporters weren’t fully aware of it.

According to emails from election officials, the pro-West Justice For All Party authorized the three individuals to collect and deliver signatures throughout the state. All three are current or former employees of Blitz Canvassing, a Colorado-based Republican political firm.

Blitz Canvassing has worked for numerous Republican House and Senate candidates and for a major super PAC called Never Back Down, which supported former Republican presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and has received more than $14.6 million in compensation, according to campaign finance reports.

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Inside the tense Israel-Hamas negotiations

Andrea Mitchell

A week after the president announced what he called a new ceasefire and hostage agreement with Israel, officials still can’t agree on who proposed it, much less whether it will come to fruition.

The US and Israel are taking opposing approaches to pressuring Hamas to accept the agreement: US diplomacy, Israel military action. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been on the phone with Arab leaders and G7 nations to get them to endorse the plan. And now, as a follow-up to those calls, Blinken announced today that he will visit the Middle East next week, his eighth visit to the region since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

Despite having agreed to the agreement as a member of Israel’s war cabinet, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has since walked away from it and continued the attack on Rafah.

U.S. officials say privately that Netanyahu’s tactics are misguided and largely a political response to prevent far-right ministers from toppling his coalition government if he ends the war. Arab diplomats have told NBC News that both Hamas and Israel are open to a “first phase” — a six-week cessation of fighting accompanied by the release of hostages and an exchange of Palestinian prisoners.

But Hamas wants the ceasefire in the second phase to be permanent, and they say Israel will not accept its terms.

Israel also opposes Hamas playing any role in Gaza after the war. Both the U.S. and Hamas don’t want Israel to remain in the city as a security force. All of this has further strained the already difficult relationship between Biden and Netanyahu. President Biden further stoked those tensions by telling Time magazine that there was “every reason” for people to conclude that Netanyahu was prolonging the war for his own political survival.

Biden later tried to resolve it, He told NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez He doesn’t believe Netanyahu is playing politics.

But with the administration sending Middle East negotiator Brett McGurk to the region and CIA Director William Burns stopping off in Doha midweek to meet with his Egyptian and Qatari counterparts, a much higher level of direct diplomacy will be needed to secure a ceasefire and hostage release acceptable to both Israel and Hamas. I will be accompanying Blinken next week to report on his efforts to hammer out an agreement.

That’s all from the Politics Desk. If you have any comments, please email us here. politicsnewsletters@nbcuni.com

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