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Running mate of Kansas governor candidate accuses him of fraud: ‘Grifter'
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Doug Billings, an Olathe podcaster running to be the next governor of Kansas, has been accused of soliciting a $2,700 donation for campaign software and pocketing the money.
The accusation is being levied by the man who wrote the check as well as April McCoy, Billings' original pick for lieutenant governor, who has since filed paperwork with the Secretary of State's office seeking to have her name removed from next August's Republican primary ballot.
In an interview with The Star, Billings, 62, denied any wrongdoing and called the dispute over the check a misunderstanding.
He said the donation was intended not for his gubernatorial bid but as a token of support for his podcast, 'The Right Side With Doug Billings,' which he started in 2020 after more than two decades in human resources at various companies.
'I would never have had him make (the check) out to the campaign if it was for me,' Billings said.
Joe Marvil Sr., 77, of Olathe, remembers it differently. Marvil said he signed the check after an hours-long campaign staff cookout at McCoy's house in Basehor, where a quote was presented for a software program that Billings said was necessary for his nascent campaign to survive.
The Star reviewed a copy of the $2,700 check, dated May 13, 2025, which was made out to Doug Billings. The subject line reads 'Software'.
The Star also reviewed a $2,700 quote from Minnesota-based Buzz360, LLC, issued to the Billings campaign on May 8 for subscriptions to 'SwipeRed,' a software product that promises to boost candidates' voter turnout by 'up to 10 percentage points.'
Billings said that the software estimate was unfamiliar to him and that he never purchased the product.
He claimed that McCoy and her husband, Sean, misled Marvil and fabricated the story about the check being for campaign software.
'I'm not claiming he's stupid. I'm not claiming he's misguided,' Billings said of his donor. 'But April and Sean have got him convinced that that check was for the campaign. He made it out to me. It was for the show — completely separate.'
Marvil said Billings followed him to his car as he was leaving the meeting and asked for a donation, saying that without the money, 'There's no way we can win.'
'I wrote on the check, 'Software,'' Marvil said. 'I said, 'This isn't for you, so what do I put down there? So I mean, it's for the software. We've got a quote for software.'
Confrontation at GOP club meeting
The dispute over Marvil's donation and why it wasn't deposited in campaign coffers spilled into the public July 17, when McCoy posted a video of a verbal confrontation between herself and Billings at a Leavenworth County Elephant Club event they had been invited to as running mates.
The clip begins with an audience member asking Billings to explain what happened with the $2,700 check, which he says he heard about on Facebook.
'There's been a huge slander scheme and a huge defamation scheme that's been launched against me,' Billings said. 'It's BS, and I don't give oxygen to the BS.'
Sean McCoy then cuts Billings off and April McCoy informs the room that Marvil is present at the restaurant.
Marvil can be seen at the end of the video standing up and addressing the candidate.
'He said (the money) was for the campaign, and now he's saying it isn't,' Marvil said, telling event attendees he has too much respect for them to be dishonest about what happened.
'This is not some kind of hoax, Doug.'
'That's not true, Joe,' Billings replied.
'The Right Side With Doug Billings'
On the same day as the confrontation in Basehor, Billings took action to control the narrative around the $2,700 check. He had a lawyer send the McCoys a cease and desist letter demanding that they stop talking about the donation.
In the letter, Florida-based attorney Peter Ticktin accused the McCoys of making defamatory statements about Billings in social media posts on Facebook and X.
'The statements include claims of ethics violations by supposedly taking campaign contributions which were allegedly taken for personal use,' reads the letter, dated July 17.
'I am not going to get into any details as you are fully aware of the international torts you committed,' Ticktin continued. 'However, I want to make it understood that demand is hereby made on you to stop this nonsense. It is harmful and actionable. You need to remove any and all posted statements and cease and desist from making and further untrue statements.'
The Ticktin Law Group did not respond to repeated requests for comment and clarification about whether Ticktin is still representing Billings.
A former classmate of President Donald Trump's at New York Military Academy, Ticktin claimed in an Aug. 4 podcast with Billings to legally represent roughly 400 people who participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In the intro to the Aug. 4 podcast featuring the two men, which largely centered discussions about Ticktin's other clients, Billings said the Trump world lawyer was drawn to his campaign 'precisely because of the kooks that are spewing lies and defaming me in the process.' The intro was recorded while Ticktin was not on the call.
Billings went on to make a claim that he repeated in his interview with The Star: McCoy was an ineffectual campaigner whom he planned to dump as running mate.
'We have got someone out there with whom I could never have won, who didn't want to give a speech, didn't want to fundraise, couldn't give an interview, couldn't speak in front of people — was just not a good choice,' Billings said. 'And so I think what happened is, that person got angry and they began to slander and defame.'
Billings campaign staff exodus
McCoy, 52, said she was outraged by Billings' treatment of Marvil and has no ulterior motive for speaking out against him.
She cited the July exodus of Billings' other top campaign staff, including treasurer Joel Goedken, as evidence of the candidate's malfeasance.
Billings said he had always meant for Goedken's role as treasurer to be temporary. Goedken provided text messages between himself and Billings in which the candidate repeatedly asked him to reconsider leaving.
In an interview, Goedken called Billings 'a habitual liar' and said the candidate never mentioned to him that he had received a check for the same amount as the coveted campaign software.
'This not only placed the entire campaign in jeopardy but also exposed me, particularly in my capacity as treasurer, to serious legal risk, including potential fines or even jail time,' Goedken said.
McCoy, who mounted an unsuccessful bid in February to chair the Kansas GOP with Billings on her ticket as vice chair, said the dispute over the check has left her unsure whether she would run for office again.
'I have better things to do,' McCoy said. 'I have kids. I have grandkids. I live on a golf course. I have a nice life. I don't need to be starting and stirring things up for fun.'
The McCoys first met Billings in Branson at a political event hosted by the eventual governor candidate, where the couple was also introduced to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and Mark McCloskey, the St. Louis man who, along with his wife, brandished firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters when they walked past their home.
McCoy said that when she signed up to be his running mate, she didn't have any concerns about Billings' character. Now, she warns fellow conservatives to steer clear.
'He's been referred to as a grifter,' McCoy said.
Jeri Bailey, who Billings hired to replace his former campaign treasurer, said the McCoys have a personal vendetta against the candidate and are attempting to ruin his reputation. They 'seem like activists slash terrorists,' she said.
Bailey said during the heated exchange at the meeting of Leavenworth County Republicans, she was worried one of the McCoys would physically attack Billings.
'Their behavior was just unbelievably immature, juvenile and full of hatred,' Bailey said.
Candidate's past legal issues
This is not the first time Billings has been accused of financial wrongdoing.
Public records show Billings was convicted in Johnson County in March 2010 on a count of felony theft of more than $25,000 and less than $100,000. Eight counts of fraud filed on the same day as the theft charge were dismissed by the prosecutor, public records show. They do not indicate what his sentence was.
Documentation of Billings' conviction no longer appears on the Johnson County District Court's records page. Asked whether the case number is still on file, a court records custodian told The Star, 'That is a confidential case.'
Billings said his record was expunged and that he never served time behind bars in connection with the conviction. He declined to say why he was arrested or where he was working when the arrest occurred.
He said he doesn't have any problem passing background checks.
'I could get top-secret clearance if I needed to,' Billings said, telling a reporter that the best way to understand his past legal troubles is to read his 2010 Christian self-help book, 'Your Wonderful Life.'
In that text, published seven months after his conviction, Billings made repeated references to his past 'integrity issues' and his journey to becoming a better person.
'I am intimately aware of what it is like to lose integrity. I have done so in my life,' Billings wrote. 'I have been a participant in dishonesty, deception, and half-truths. I'm one who has padded expense reports and pocketed extra money.'
Later in the book, he again referenced his past financial impropriety.
'Fired from jobs because of integrity issues. I lost relationships because of my own ego and lies. I squandered a career. I falsified expense reports at work and lost my job for it,' one passage reads.
Official investigation?
McCoy said the incident with Marvil and the check demonstrates a lack of growth and the continuation of a pattern of abuse.
The day after Marvil told her about his $2,700 going to Billings' personal bank account, McCoy said she traveled to the Secretary of State's office in Topeka to file the paperwork asking to have her name removed from the ballot next to Billings'.
Wade Wiebe, executive director of the Kansas Public Disclosure Commission, which is responsible for enforcing state campaign finance laws, declined to say whether the commission has received a formal complaint or launched an investigation into Billings.
Kansas Election Director Bryan Caskey said it's unclear whether the Secretary of State's office will be able to act on McCoy's request to be removed from the ballot. He said his office is researching and consulting with the attorney general to determine how to proceed.
'Kansas requires the governor and lieutenant governor to run as a ticket, as a team, and to the best of my knowledge, we've never had a situation where prior to Primary Election Day, a lieutenant governor candidate wanted to get off the ticket,' Caskey said.
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