On July 4, Kayne West made the nation do a collective eye-roll when he announced via Twitter he was jumping into the 2020 presidential race.
Various political pundits quickly speculated that the rapper’s 2020 presidential run was a publicity stunt to promote his upcoming music while others saw him as working in collusion with Republican President Trump to hurt Joe Biden’s campaign. In April 2018, in a text to Ebro Darden, he wrote “I love Donald Trump … I love Donald Trump.”
West also said in an interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God that he had been asked by a friend “What makes George Bush any more racist than Trump?” alluding to his previous controversial condemnation of Bush as not caring about black people. West said “racism isn’t the deal-breaker for me.”
Nevertheless, West is running as an Independent under the “Birthday Party,” because, as the 43-year-old explained to Forbes, “when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday. He supports restoring school prayer and banning abortion, although he admitted to the publication that he is ignorant on issues such as taxes and foreign policy.
During his bizarre first rally on July 19 in South Carolina, the Yeezy designer cried on stage, accused wife Kim Kardashian of having considered aborting daughter North and claimed Harriet Tubman “never actually freed the slaves.” His comments sparked marital problems with Kardashian who spoke out on social media revealing he was in the grips of a bipolar episode.
Outside of tweeting erratically, releasing a Bible-inspired campaign video and launching a line of #Ye2020 merchandise including $60 baseball hats and $160 hoodies, the Grammy winner couldn’t get his candidacy much serious attention. He failed to meet the deadlines needed to get on ballots in all 50 states. Illinois ruled that West didn’t have enough valid signatures by the state’s deadline as he collected just 1,200 of the 2,500 needed. In Wisconsin he missed the filing deadline by 14 seconds and, in Ohio, failed to qualify after officials ruled he filed a petition with fake signatures.
Just one week before November 3, West jetted off to a private island to celebrate his wife’s 40th birthday where she threw a star-studded but highly criticized party without masks or social distancing in the middle of a global pandemic. According to OK! Magazine, celebrating wasn’t the only reason the rapper spent time abroad.
“On a good day, Kanye seems to have forgotten that he is even running for President. But on a bad day, things are not good,” a source exclusively told OK!. “Kim is bracing for Kanye to be triggered by all the press coverage on Biden and Trump that doesn’t even mention him on Tuesday night. The plan was to get Kanye as far away as possible from what is going on; that is why she threw herself a birthday party on the exclusive island, known locally as Tetiaroa Atoll.”
“Kanye does not handle losing well, and this humiliating defeat isn’t going to be pretty,” the source continued. “However, the biggest nightmare for the family is if Trump wins and it looks like Kanye helped him get into The White House again by pulling votes from Biden as a third-party candidate. If America thinks this week is going to be tense, think about what is going on in the Kardashian/West household!” the insider adds.
So now that it’s finally Election Day, where is the presidential hopeful? On Tuesday morning, West took to Twitter to share he was, not surprisingly, voting for himself.
“God is so good. Today I am voting for the first time in my life for the President of the United States, and it’s for someone I truly trust…me,” West tweeted. “We will heal, We will cure.”
The “Jesus Walks” rapper is an official presidential candidate in 12 U.S. states including Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Iowa, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, West Virginia and Vermont. He is also a write-in candidate in five states including Alabama, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Rhode Island and is listed as a vice presidential candidate alongside American Independent party presidential nominee Rocky De La Fuente in California.
Later Tuesday afternoon, West cast his vote in person in the state of Wyoming, writing in himself and his running mate with Wyoming preacher Michelle Tidball.
Although he has zero chance of actually winning the presidency, due to the electoral college, he will appear on the first post-election day episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Wednesday night. And this may not be the last we hear about West the candidate. He previously said he was ‘walking for president’ — referring to his aim to run again in 2024.
That’s one encore we don’t need.
