Editions
Los 40 USA
Scores
Follow us on
Hello

US Election 2020

Kanye West election 2020 campaign: ads, policies and more

Rapper Kanye West made a presidential bid based on his fierce faith. Whether it's a "spoiler" or for publicity; impossibly, it's still a thing.

Kanye West election 2020 campaign: ads, policies and more
AFP

Although Kanye West cannot actually be elected to the White House after failing to qualify in enough states, his presidential campaign 2020 continues. West’s campaign team have filed the necessary paperwork to ensure his name appears on the ballot in 12 states.

The rapper’s candidacy has been accepted onto the ballot in these 12 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Vermont. Those states give West no mathematical chance at winning the 270 electoral votes necessary to become president because he missed the filing deadline in key states.

Since West joined the race as a wild card in July, he has had a string of failures and even been accused of fraud in his efforts to be listed on the ballot in other states including Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Montana.

Kaye West 2020 presidential campaign details

43-year-old West is running under his own “Birthday Party” and is running largely on his own brand which includes his strong Christian faith at its heart. Kanye West’s 2020 vice-presidential candidate is preacher, life coach, and former mental health therapist Michelle Tidball.

West has never voted before, so it’s no surprise that his “policies” and plans are a little thin on the ground. What has become clear is that he takes a pro-life stance on religious grounds, and has previously alleged that Planned Parenthood is run by “white supremacists to do the Devil’s work”.

West’s policies also include anti-vaccination conspiracies, claiming “they want to put chips inside of us, they want to do all kinds of things to make it where we can’t cross the gates of heaven.” Rejecting medical science, West said coronavirus was “all about God. We need to stop doing things that make God mad.”

His vision is to have a management style based on the fictional country of Wakanda in the Hollywood film Black Panther, and he admits that he hasn’t done enough research on taxes to have any policy detail yet.

According to a Forbes interview with West in August this year, West has indicated that his campaign is designed to hurt Joe Biden.

When asked directly if he was running to draw votes away from the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, West said that rather than running for president, he was “walking,” quickly adding that he was “walking . . . to win.”

When it was pointed out that he actually can’t win in 2020, that he won’t be on enough ballots to yield 270 electoral votes, and that a write-in campaign isn’t feasible, and thus was serving as a spoiler, West replied: “I’m not going to argue with you. Jesus is King.”

It is widely acknowledged that Kanye West has a favourable relationship with the Trump White House. Donald Trump has denied having anything to do with West running for president.

Many have expressed concerns for West’s mental health following his diagnosis three years ago with bipolar disorder. His wife, Kim Kardashian West asked the public for “compassion” amid concerning behaviour.  The couple have four children together.

For all the latest election 2020 news as it happens, follow our dedicated rolling feed.