On July 4th, Kanye West took to Twitter to announce that he plans to run in the 2020 presidential election. On the heels of that announcement, the music mogul took part in a bizarre Forbes interview that saw him espouse anti-vaxxer and pro-life commentary.
West’s presidential bid was too little too late, he had missed the deadline to run in six states, whilst the deadline for several others approached at breakneck speed.
As Intelligencer report, the last-minute rush proved to be too much for West — and he has reportedly bowed of the race.
The report — which took information from multiple campaign professionals — alleges that Kanye had begun the process of having his name included on the ballot as a third-party candidate. A member of Kanye’s team reportedly let out that he would be spending time in Florida to get the required number of signatures to be added to the ballot. Requiring Kanye to hit 132,781 signatures in less than a week to hit the July 15th deadline.
“We had overwhelming support to get him on the ballot,” revealed campaign member Steve Kramer. “Whether anybody is going to vote for him or not is up to them. They [the West campaign] got a lot of people who they’ve got both on their volunteer side and their contracted side.”
A recent poll from Redfield & Wilton Strategies illuminated Kanye’s presidential pull. According to the survey, West is polling at a grim 2%, however the poll may pull one percentage point from President Donald Trump.
National Poll:
Biden 48% (+8)
Trump 40%
Jorgensen (L) 1%
Hawkins (G) 1%Love Hip Hop?
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When @kanyewest included in the poll:
Biden 48% (+9)
Trump 39%
West 2%
Jorgensen (L) 2%
Hawkins (G) 1%@RedfieldWilton (July 9)— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) July 13, 2020
Earlier this week, Black Eyed Peas producer will.i.am weighed in on West’s presidential bid, calling it “a dangerous thing to be playing with.”
In an interview with The Mirror, will.i.am cast doubt on West’s political goals, musing that you don’t need to run for office to help your community.
“It’s a dangerous thing to be playing with,” he shared “If you’re not serious, you don’t play with that, especially now.”
He continued, “Like what the fuck, seriously, I don’t even know what like community service you do.”
“There’s so many ways to help our communities other than politics and you don’t have to run for office to change people’s lives for the better.”