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Know more about Kanye West's presidential running mate, Michelle Tidball

By ANI | Updated: August 8, 2020 17:05 IST

It is Michelle Tidball, a 57-year-old spiritual coach, who has been tapped as the rap superstar Kanye West's vice-presidential running mate.

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It is Michelle Tidball, a 57-year-old spiritual coach, who has been tapped as the rap superstar Kanye West's vice-presidential running mate.

Unlike West, not many are completely aware of the background of the billionaire sneaker mogul's vice-presidential pick, who lives on a ranch in Cody, Wyoming, and has a deeply religious background.

According to New York Post, multiple pages from Tidball's website for her nonprofit Bible study program, called Abundant Ministries, have been taken down, since she was tapped as the rapper's running mate.

Those pages included her biography, in which she says she has pursued God since she was six months old when she says she was "slipping away into a crib death" before a higher power visited her "in a hospital tent" and saved her life.

The aim of Tidball, as she says, is to help "people get 'unstuck' in their lives using biblical principles and wisdom."

She served as an executive director of Bright Futures Mentoring Program, a Cody-based student mentorship program, the website cited.

"My Heart has always been to walk in maturity and to bring other's maturity to be about His business and see the completion of things He mandated before the foundations of the world. I look forward to bringing the word with experience and practical counsel on walking as mature adopted sons mfested upon this earth," her now-removed biography read.

Cited in New York Post, Tidball also touted on her now-deleted pages that she is a holder of "various degrees in mental health and criminal justice".

However, according to TMZ, the only known degree she has, however, is a bachelor's in psychology from the University of Wyoming in 2003. Her biography stated that she worked as a mental health therapist for 10 years before shifting to life coaching.

In a now-deleted Bible teleconference from June 2017, also obtained by the outlet, Tidball suggested that one's mental illness could be handled by completing domestic chores.

Taking examples from her 10 years of working with people with mental illness, Tidball said: "If you would get up every day and make your bed and do your dishes -- you would be better." In the same teleconference, she also mentioned of not watching "news".

Tidball has not publicly discussed having any other careers, though The New Yorker reports that she also works in a dental office.

Mary L. Keller, a religious studies scholar at the University of Wyoming and a high school classmate of Tidball, told the magazine, "Michelle was the bubbly, charismatic cheerleader."

"I think she knows Hebrew pretty well," Keller said as she also called the vice-presidential candidate smart. Her website for Abundant Ministries is filled with Hebrew, including the website name: Yarash. Yarash means "to seize, to take possession" or "inherit" in Hebrew.

In 2016, Keller and Tidball ran a youth group together, where Tidball described herself as an "online prophet."

"To her, his election was evidence," Keller said as she mentioned of Tidball, who, allegedly told her that she had predicted Donald Trump's victory.

Tidball has an active, albeit unpopular Twitter page. She has retweeted 18 campaign announcements to her 369 followers since her page became active, though she has not personally tweeted anything.

When West made headlines in mid-July after his controversial South Carolina rally, Tidball made a rare personal statement to the Daily Mail, assuring the outlet that the rapper was "just fine."

It is not clear if the spiritual life coach will be taking on a more public role with the campaign at any point.

The American rapper Kanye West had announced his presidential bid on July 4.

( With inputs from ANI )

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