With just 22 days left before the presidential election on November 3rd, Kanye West dropped his first political ad on Twitter yesterday, October 12th. The video advertises his Kanye 2020 Vision presidential campaign, which he launched in July of this year. According to his “Presidential Platform,” available to view on his website, West’s first goal is to “restore faith and revive our constitutional commitment to freedom of religion and the free exercise of one’s faith.” And the video ad further backs this message.
“What is America’s destiny? What is best for our nation—our people? What is just; true justice? We have to think about all these things together as a people,” West states in the video. He continues, “To contemplate our future, to live up to our dream, we must have vision. We as a people will revive our nation’s commitment to faith, to what our constitution calls the free exercise of religion, including, of course, prayer. Through prayer, faith can be restored.”
His message also touches upon the importance of, in his opinion, reunifying the family structure in order to build a stronger America. “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,” he says.
West had been a staunch advocate for President Trump up until he decided to run against the him earlier this year. Though he missed the filing deadline to appear on ballots in six states as a third-party contender, West continued forward with his campaign, telling Forbes in July that he’d be running in the “Birthday Party” and, if elected, would base his leadership on that of the fictional rulership of Black Panther’s Wakanda.

Furthermore, West confirmed he has never voted and believes the President of the United States is chosen by God.
Though West’s name will not appear on the official ballot, he urges his supporters at the end of the ad to “write in Kanye West,” which is causing major concern for those who fear that a third-party candidate with no chance of winning could skew the election results.
As a 2016 Wall Street Journal article noted, “A third party could change [a battleground state’s] winner in one of these states by gaining enough votes that would have otherwise gone to a major party.” These third-party candidates rarely win a major election, but they can influence the outcome of a close race between the Democratic and Republican candidates by taking votes away. A potential solution to this problem is rank-choice voting, where you can rank candidates by preference. It’s currently being considered in several states this election cycle, and is already employed in localities across the U.S.

West’s campaign activity dipped in recent months, and many believed he had dropped his bid altogether. The fear now is that West’s campaign resurgence could pull votes away from either Democratic candidate Joe Biden or President Trump, thus affecting the end result of the election. Some even speculate that this has been his end goal all along.
West’s name does appear on the California voter ballot, but he is listed as a Vice President nominee under independent presidential contender Rocky De La Fuente.
In an election as crucial as this one, with human rights, social justice, and the future of our planet on the line, using your vote to write-in Kanye West is detrimental. Perhaps we will soon enter into a future America where a third-party candidate will be a welcome addition to an election and not cause so much strife and upset—and that future is one that we look forward to.
But, at present, a vote for Kanye West is not actually a vote for Kanye West, so please keep that in mind when you mail in your ballot this month or head to the polls come November 3rd.