Black Michigan Republican accepted campaign cash from group tied to white nationalists

A black Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate who was forced to apologize for a swastika spotted in a campaign ad accepted campaign contributions from a group linked to white supremacists.

John James, who fell short in his bid to unseat Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), accepted hundreds of dollars from an anti-immigrant group that helped kickstart Kris Kobach's political career, reported the Detroit Metro Times.

Campaign finance records filed with the Federal Elections Commission show the U.S. Immigration Reform PAC donated $500 to the James campaign on Sept. 5.

The same group donated $10,000 to Kobach, who lost his bid Tuesday for Kansas governor, at the start of his political career, in 2004.

The PAC's founder and president Mary Lou Tanton, the wife of influential anti-immigrant activist John Tanton -- who founded Federation for American Immigration Reform, considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

John Tanton has called for a European-American majority to preserve societal and cultural benefits for whites, although he insists his group is not white supremacist in nature.

The U.S. Immigration Reform PAC donated between $500 and $2,000 to James and five other Republican candidates since July.

The other candidates are Kobach, Rep. Steve King (R-IA), Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA), Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL).

James apologized after a campaign ad showed a printed swastika on a bulletin board filmed at a school.

“I need to fess up and admit this was a terrible error on our part,” James said last month. “We should have caught this error, and we didn’t – and there’s no excuse. I’m responsible for everything that our team does and fails to do. And I will do everything in my power to make sure this never, ever happens again.”