Kanye for President?
Kanye Omari West, the 43-year-old American rapper ran as a Presidential Candidate of the Independent party in the 2020 Presidential election. The musician is well known for his marriage to reality TV show actress and fashion designer Kim Kardashian West.
West announced his 2020 Presidential Election campaign on July 4, 2020, through a tweet on Twitter.
“We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future,” West’s tweet said. “I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION”
The White House would be modeled off of Wakanda, the fictional kingdom from Black Panther, in a West World.
“A lot of Africans do not like the movie and representation of themselves in…Wakanda,” West said. “I’m going to use the framework of Wakanda right now because it’s the best explanation of what our design group is going to feel like in the White House.”
Kanye West spent over $6 million of his own money on his campaign, spending most of it on ballot access services. He only earned $2,782 during September. He had previously only earned back $11,472.66 in contributions, as of August.
West was officially qualified for the presidential ballot in 12 states, which would have earned him a total of 84 electoral votes if he had managed to win them all. The states included: Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Vermont.
As a member of his self-styled ‘Birthday Party,’ West received about 60,000 votes out of an estimated 160 million. He earned the most votes, 10,188 to be exact, in Tennessee. The rapper also made it very clear that he was a first-time voter and that he voted for himself, posting a photo on Twitter of his ballot.
West conceded and gave a two-word concession speech, stating that he would run for President of the United States again in 2024.
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Suhailee M | Dec 2, 2020 at 4:34 pm
Personally, I enjoy Kanye and his music but I do think it is funny how he would run for president. Kanye to me and maybe to others he is not the right candidate to become president especially if he never had a plan to change the US for good reasons.
Rowan Caron | Dec 1, 2020 at 8:08 am
I love Kanye’s music and think he’s one of the most unique celebrities that comes up in the media, I think him deciding to run for president proves that. Even though he may be one of my favorite music artists, I can confidently say he is very unfit for presidency, I am thoroughly disappointed in the amount of votes he ended up getting, especially with the state our economy and society is in having to do with COVID-19. I really hope if he does end up running again in 2024 voter turn out for him won’t increase.