Kanye West Reportedly Misses Key Deadline, Presidential Bid Could Be Falling Apart
New reports paint Kanye West’s presidential campaign as being on the rocks now that it has failed to meet a major Federal Election Commission deadline.
FEC rules require any campaign that has spent or plans to spend $100,000 or more to make a filing that was due Aug. 20.
The West campaign has not filed, TMZ reported Saturday, citing an FEC official.
According to the New York Post, the blown deadline suggests “West’s campaign has either stalled, or still isn’t together enough to meet the required filings.”
The campaign has already been struggling, as Illinois, Montana, Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin have rejected West’s petitions to get on the ballot.
“In Illinois, Montana, and West Virginia, it was because he filed an insufficient number of valid signatures,” New York magazine reported.
“In Wisconsin, it was because West did not file on time. In Ohio, the information and signature on West’s nominating petition and his statement of candidacy did not match those on petitions circulated to be signed.”
West has also filed to make the ballot in Louisiana, Minnesota, Tennessee and Virginia, but has not yet heard whether he was successful.
His Virginia chances seem long after New York magazine reported that the majority of his electors were not even aware they had been named by his campaign.
“Is this a joke?” West elector Ilisa Stillman asked. “Holy guacamole.”
“I’m certainly not supporting Kanye West,” she said.
Elector Courtney Brown was also surprised.
“We shouldn’t do things in a rush,” she said. “I didn’t even know it was for him.”
Brown said she had been approached outside a grocery store when she agreed to what she was asked, but did not recall having signed on to be an elector for West.
“I have a very vivid memory, I don’t remember hearing his name,” she added. “I’m not a big fan but I know who he is.”
West is on the ballot in Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Vermont.
In July, West told Forbes that contrary to the conventional wisdom that his candidacy would detract from Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s chances, a black American running for president does automatically split the black vote.
“That is a form of racism and white supremacy and white control to say that all black people need to be Democrat and to assume that me running is me splitting the vote. All of that information is being charged up on social media platforms by Democrats,” he said.
West made it clear that a comment from Biden in May claiming that anyone not voting for him in November is not really black stuck in his craw, saying that it was “threatening” to have a “white man can tell a black man if you don’t vote for me, you’re not black.”
“A lot of times just like political parties they feel all blacks have to be Democrat,” West said.
“This man, Joe Biden, said if you don’t vote for me, then you are not black. Well, act like we didn’t hear that? We act like we didn’t hear that man say that? That man said that.”
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