[citation needed] Following the resignation of Vincent Kokert as chairman of the CDU in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Amthor announced his candidacy for the role.

[8] Amid growing criticism of his lobbying activities on behalf of a private company, he declared in June 2020 that he would not run for the party's leadership in the state anymore.

[16] In 2018 and 2019, the physician Wolfgang Haupt recruited more than 30 private investors from Europe and the USA with the help of political contacts, especially in conservative circles, who invested more than USD 35 million in his start-up.

[17] In 2020, German news magazine Der Spiegel published a story detailed Amthor's lobbying efforts with chancellor Angela Merkel for the American-German company.

In April 2021, the company, which among other things wanted to develop AI software for face and speech recognition, applied for bankruptcy protection proceedings in the USA (Chapter 11).

[17] Ahead of the Christian Democrats' leadership election in 2018, Amthor publicly endorsed Jens Spahn to succeed Merkel as the party's chair.

[21][22] Amthor's eccentric personality, dated speech and conservative political positions, in contrast to his youthful age, have led to him being dubbed "the oldest 26-year-old in Germany",[23] and has made him the subject of significant public mockery and online memes.