Kanye West Spent Over $12 Million of His Own Money on His Failed 2020 Presidential Campaign
Kanye West spent $13.2 million—including nearly $12.5 million of his own money—on his failed 2020 presidential campaign, according to his final Federal Election Commission report.
The 43-year-old rapper-cum-entrepreneur entered the race on July 4 in what many initially thought was an elaborate publicity stunt. Launching the campaign with the Hashtags #2020Vision and the slogan “Ye for President,” he ran under the “Birthday Party” banner and his platform was a mixture of Christian pro-life conservative policies, strong defence and criminal justice reform.
Soon after announcing his run, Kanye west quickly got the endorsement of Tesla boss Elon Musk.
Despite the blaze of publicity, West’s campaign failed to gain traction and he barely qualified for the ballot in a dozen states and earned only about 66,000 votes nationally. He also raised a little over $2 million in outside donations.
The FEC report breaks down that West’s campaign spent $7.5 million on fees related to efforts to get his name on the ballot in various states, $210,544 on a two-page ad in The New York Times one week ahead of the election and $918,130 on campaign apparel on Election Day.