Kanye West ‘bows out of presidential race’ after exploring getting his name on Florida ballot

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Kanye West has reportedly decided to call it quits on his run in the 2020 Presidential election, less than two weeks after he first marked his entrance into the race.  

According to the Intelligencer, West hired campaign staff who were looking into getting his name listed as a third-party candidate in Florida and several other states, but the team has now been told the bid is off. 

Steve Kramer, an election strategist hired by West to focus on getting his name on the ballot in Florida and South Carolina, told the publication on Thursday, ‘He’s out’.

Yet, West’s bid was serious and there were 180 people working in the ground in Florida when the decision was made to call the effort off, Kramer said. 

The rapper, 43, has not publicly commented on whether his run for the presidency is continuing. 

‘I’ll let you know what I know once I get all our stuff canceled. We had over 180 people out there today,’ Kramer initially told Intelligencer when the Florida campaign came to an end.

‘I have nothing good or bad to say about Kanye,’ he later added. 

‘Everyone has their personal decision about why they make decisions. Running for president has to be one of the hardest things for someone to actually contemplate at that level.’

Campaign professionals told the Intelligencer that West had started attempts to get his named on the ballot as a third-party candidate last week to mount a challenge against President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden.  

One source said they had been approached to go to Florida to collect the signatures needed to make the ballot in the state by Wednesday’s deadline. 

To appear on the ballot in the Sunshine State in November, West would need 132,781 signatures by July 15. 

Kramer also added that he believed West’s campaign team were ‘working over weekend there, formalizing the FEC and other things that they’ve got to do when you have a lot of corporate lawyers involved’.

He said they had ‘overwhelming support to get him on the ballot’ and that ‘whether anybody is going to vote for him or not is up to them’. 

‘Any candidate running for president for the first time goes through these hiccups,’ Kramer said. 

He later told the Intelligencer that the staff were told the drive to get on the ballot was over, on the same day that West tweeted a pictured of himself registering to vote in Wyoming. 

‘I want to show you how I just registered to vote,’ West had said. 

West announced he is running for president of the United States, just four months before election day, on July 4. 

The 21-time Grammy winner celebrated Independence Day by revealing his plans on Twitter, tweeting: ‘We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States! #2020VISION.’

The rapper has sparked speculation over the years that he would potentially enter the presidential race one day, most recently in November, when he said he planned to run in 2024.  

In his Twitter announcement, West revealed little of his plans but later spoke about his platform in an interview with Forbes. 

In his Forbes interview, West first seemed to say that he hadn’t yet decided whether he would run as an independent candidate, but was giving himself the next 30 days to decide what to do, even though he’d have missed filing deadlines for several state ballots by that time. 

West said that he believed he could use coronavirus as a reason for being placed on those ballots, though. 

But at some point during the interview, West said that he had decided to run and that his party would be called the ‘Birthday Party’ because ‘when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday’. 

West has previously publicly supported President Trump, wearing MAGA hats and even going to the White House to meet with him, despite admitting that he’s never voted in a presidential election in his life. 

West told Forbes that he has since lost confidence in Trump and that ‘it looks like one big mess to me.’

He named Michelle Tidball, 57, as his running mate ahead of the 2020 election. 

Tidball hails from Cody, Wyoming – the same town where West owns a $14 million ranch – but she has scrubbed clean her web presence in recent days. 

However, internet archives reveal a glimpse into the mind of the elusive ‘Biblical life coach’, who reportedly ran the website Yarash.org. 

The site is currently ‘under construction’, but TMZ accessed one archived page featuring a biography of Tidball, which describes her journey to religious enlightenment. 

Tidball was reportedly visited by God when she was just six months old and on the brink of death.  

Among other things, the famed rapper also said in the Fores interview he believes vaccines are ‘the mark of the beast’ and that ‘Planned Parenthoods have been placed inside cities by white supremacists to do the Devil’s work’. 

He later posted and deleted a pro-life tweet saying calling six-month fetuses ‘souls’ that ‘deserve to live’.

West said that his wife, Kim Kardashian, and Tesla founder Elon Musk were his advisors at the moment and that he had suggested Musk could be ‘the head of our space program’.

Billionaire Musk was among the first to endorse the rapper and sparked rumors that he could be Ye’s running mate after replying: ‘You have my full support!’  

He later appeared to pull back his support following the controversial Forbes interview. 

Musk said he still stands behind West but believes he should run in 2024 instead. 

West’s wife Kim Kardashian had little to say immediately after the news initially broke but showed her support for her husband by tweeting an American Flag emoji in response. 

Despite her public support of West’s plans, Kardashian and the family are said to be ‘very concerned’ about West, who appears to be ‘in the middle of a serious bipolar episode.’

TMZ claimed the father-of-four suffers from a serious episode around once a year, resulting in his decision-making being impacted.

The site reported: ‘Kanye announced he’s running for president via Twitter over the weekend, and also did a rambling interview with Forbes… which drew harsh criticism, confusion and concern.’ 

West’s decision to run this year was already on the back foot as ballot deadlines approached. 

While there is no official deadline to enter the U.S. presidential race, candidates must meet certain filing requirements under Ballot Access Laws that vary by state. 

The deadline to add independent candidates to the ballot had not yet passed in many states, including California, when West announced but were fast approaching. 

He had already missed deadlines to add his name to the presidential ballot in six states by July 4. 

Of the 538 Electoral College votes total, West would already be missing out on 102 of those votes if he were to successfully make his way onto the ballot in other states – as the registration date has passed for North Carolina, Texas, New York, Maine, New Mexico and Indiana. 

Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia all have July deadlines also. 

He could, however ,have run in these states as a write-in candidate. Although, rules for this type of candidacy vary from state to state and in many states do not count or are tallied as part of the ‘other’ category.

The late registration – also the name of West’s 2005 album – would prevent him from standing any real chance against Trump and presumed Democratic candidate Biden.

West’s announcement was met with with mixed reactions of skepticism and excitement, as online bookmakers cut his odds of winning the election from 500/1 to 50/1. 

A national poll released on Tuesday revealed that West was polling at two percent and that  his inclusion hurt Trump’s number more than they did Biden’s.  

According to The Hill, respondents of the poll were first asked who they would vote for in November, without mentioning West’s name. 

Biden won out with 48 percent to Trump’s 40 percent. 

When West was included in the options, Biden’s tally remained at 48 percent but Trump dropped to 39 percent.  

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