Kanye West Donates $73,540 To Chicago Mayoral Candidate Amara Enyia

One of Chicago’s mayoral candidates is getting some serious celebrity backing. Your most problematic of “faves”, Kanye West is supporting Amara Enyia, contributing $73,540 to her campaign, the Chicago Tribune reports. The announcement comes just a week after Chance the Rapper endorsed Enyia, thrusting her campaign into the spotlight. And, not so coincidently, Ye’s donation exactly (to the dollar) covers the amount of fines that Enyia was facing from state election officials due to her brief run for mayor in 2015. According to the Tribune, four years ago, Enyia dropped out of the mayoral race after the petition signatures she had collected in order to get on the ballot were challenged. However, she never closed her campaign account, resulting in fines for not filing the legally required quarterly campaign finance reports. This little snafu could have interfered with her current bid, with Illinois State Board of Elections spokesperson Matt Dietrich telling the Tribune that the fines would have to be paid by Dec. 20 for Enyia to be eligible to run. Enyia had been communicating with state officials about the issue in order to have the fines resolved possibly through a settlement, but Ye’s donation relieved that stress. “The $73,540 debt to the Illinois State Board of Elections has been paid in full,” wrote in a statement. Enyia’s campaign confirmed that the money was used to pay her fines. “The Amara Enyia campaign thanks Chicago native, Kanye West, for his generous action,” the statement read. “Amara’s campaign is energizing people around the city with bold ideas and solutions that move Chicago forward. We are excited to engage people of all walks of life as we focus our efforts on getting on the ballot.” Ye’s donation to Enyia’s progressive campaign could raise eyebrows, giving that our problematic cousin (the one you don’t speak about) insists on canoodling with Donald Trump and wearing his notorious red “Make America Great Again” hat. Nonetheless, every one knows at this point that the rapper/entrepreneur does whatever he wants, and, no doubt the help went a long with with Enyia’s campaign, which had less than $100 in the bank. During Chance’s endorsement speech of Enyia, he said he’s all about change. “I want to work with somebody who is about change, somebody who is about our community, somebody who is about equity, somebody who is about fairness,” Chance said at a City Hall news conference. “And the one person in my research of this wide-open race that’s views align with me would obviously be candidate Amara Enyia.” “This is not your typical flash-in-the-pan endorsement,” Enyia added. “Today represents a commitment, the commitment that Chance and I and the hundreds of people that we’ve organized with, advocated with and worked alongside. Today is the beginning of Chicago’s next level.”