Kanye West Drops First POTUS Campaign Ad Twice; Spoiler Contender Advocates “Turning To Faith” In Write-In Bid

Dominic Patten
·3 min read
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With just over three weeks to go before Election Day and polling near zero, increasingly desperate contender Kanye West has put out his first campaign ad today with prayers of convincing voters to write him in on their ballots – more than once.

“America,” the notoriously baffling and seemingly baffled rapper and fashion designer declares at the top of the spot. “What is America’s destiny? What is best for our nation? Our people? What is just, true justice?”

Advocating Americans find overall salvation in faith, the relatively high production value spot dropped this morning on social media, where it picked up over a million views relatively quickly. Then, because this is Kanye, the ad was taken down Monday to be replaced by an almost identical ad. The only difference between Ad 1.0 and the over 270,000 viewed Ad 2.0 is the addition of on-screen text right near the end saying “2020 Vision”:

“We as a people are called to a greater purpose than ourselves,” West says in the ad. “We are not only a beacon to the world, but we should be servants to each other. To encourage each other, to help each other to lift up each other,” he adds.

“Our fellow Americans, that we may all prosper together, we have to act on faith, with the sure knowledge that we are pursuing the right goals and doing the right things,” the Birthday Party candidate continues. “We will build a stronger country by building stronger families. Families are the building blocks of society, of a nation. By turning to faith, we will be the kind of nation, the kind of people God intends us to be.”

Of course for all the attention nearly self-described potential spoiler West has received since announcing his candidacy back on July 4, the Grammy winner hasn’t been so successful getting on ballots across the nation. With an often-scattered deadline missing campaign consisting of GOP operatives and sit-downs with Jared Kushner, West has made it on the official ballots in less than a dozen states.

Though even with this latest high profile move, it is questionable at this point how much of an actual spoiler the ‘Power’ rapper can be to poll topping Joe Biden for his old pal Donald Trump.

With the exception of solidly blue Vermont, most of those states are overwhelmingly Republican like Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Utah, Idaho, Iowa and Tennessee. To West’s states displeasure, he is on the ballot in voter rich California as the Vice-Presidential candidate of the American Independent Party with businessman Rocque “Rocky” de la Fuente heading the ticket.

If the intent of today’s ad(s) seems a lost cause, the tone of it is well in line with West’s evangelical stance the past few years. However, a more recent tweet about police brutality in Nigeria seems to have missed opportunity with American voters written all over it, despite the arch of justice West apparently desires:

Also, for all his kinship with the former Celebrity Apprentice host and one would assume his base, West has had to self-finance his bid to the tune of over $6.8 million dollars so far. Also, with national, regional and local ad space almost non-existent this close to voting day, it is extremely unlikely that anyone will be seeing the 82-second spot on their TV over the next few weeks – and that kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?

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