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- Harlan Crow donated $3,300 to Cornel West's independent presidential campaign, per FEC filings.
- Crow, a major player in GOP politics, described West as "a good friend" during a WSJ interview.
- Justice Thomas faced scrutiny after ProPublica reported that he took luxury trips funded by Crow.
Billionaire GOP megadonor Harlan Crow maxed out a donation to Cornel West, the progressive academic and 2024 independent presidential candidate, according to the latest FEC filings.
The records show that Crow gave $3,300 to West in August, weeks before West switched from pursuing the Green Party presidential nomination to running as an independent.
West in the past has labeled himself a "non-Marxist socialist," which would seemingly clash with the more conservative and pro-capitalist politics of Crow.
But Crow in an April interview with The Wall Street Journal described West, a professor emeritus at Princeton University and a former professor at Harvard University, as "a good friend."
West, who has been critical of the Democratic Party despite his liberal positions, has drawn the ire of some Democrats who believe his candidacy could siphon off votes from President Joe Biden's reelection effort and aid his Republican challenger.
But West is undeterred, pointing to some of the most urgent problems in American society that he feels remain unaddressed.
During an August interview on NBC's "Meet the Press NOW," West said that the two-party system in the US was becoming "an impediment for the flowering of American democracy."
"We've got too many fellow citizens, 63%, living paycheck-to-paycheck," he told the network. "I must say that it's hard to view oneself as a spoiler when there is increasing rot in the system with two parties connected to big money, Wall Street, Silicon Valley and militarism abroad."
Crow leapt onto the national stage after ProPublica in April published a major report that detailed how Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had taken luxury vacations funded by the wealthy real estate developer for more than 20 years without disclosing the trips.
Thomas, in a response to revelations about the previously undisclosed trips, said at the time that he was advised that it wasn't necessary to report "this sort of personal hospitality."
In a May interview with The Atlantic, Crow said that he wasn't "a law guy" and didn't discuss Supreme Court cases with Thomas, but largely conversed about Motown and sports with the conservative jurist.
Crow late last month met with representatives from the presidential campaigns of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, per NBC News, as several major GOP donors are looking to get behind the strongest challenger to Donald Trump's presidential bid.
Trump currently remains the favorite to capture the GOP presidential nomination, as he maintains sizable leads in national surveys and most statewide primary polling.