Here is everything you need to know about Kanye West's 2020 presidential election

One of the more surprising moments of this year's US election was the announcement by rapper Kanye West that he was going to run for presidential office.

The musician announced his intention to run for president on Twitter in July, sparking a frenzy on social media.

"By trusting God, unifying our vision, and building our future, we must now realize the promise of America," he said. "I'm running for United States President! #2020VISION."

But as America continues to tally the votes in the Joe Biden-Donald Trump race, how many votes did West manage to secure?

Everything you need to know:

How many votes has Kanye West received?

He has failed to come close to accruing as many votes as the mainstream candidates in the race, despite West's star appeal.

Running as an independent candidate, the rapper had gathered 50,000 votes as of around 5 am UK time.

That might sound like a lot, but in any of the states, he was on the ballot for, Kanye hasn't actually made much of a dent.

His biggest win was in Tennessee, where he won almost 10,000 votes, a mere 0.3% of the vote. Trump won Tennessee with 1,794,077 votes, 61.1 percent of the votes, for the sake of comparison.

Trump eventually won most of the states where Kanye picked up votes, though a handful was picked up by Joe Biden.

The other states that voted for the West:

Arkansas (a vote of 3,461)

Colorado (5,455) Colorado

From Idaho (592)

(1,852) Iowa

(6,110) Kentucky

(3,818) Louisiana

(1,875) Mississippi

(5,265) Oklahoma

Utah (with 3,722)

(1,154) Vermont

Why was West running as an independent?

A lot of preparation and paperwork needs to be done beforehand in order to run for president.

It appeared after his announcement that West had not taken the steps that would be necessary for him to run for president.

He had not registered with the Federal Election Commission, had presented a platform for a campaign and had collected enough signatures to get on the ballot in November.

As an independent, he was able to run after failing to secure the backing of a smaller political party, most of which had chosen their candidates for 2020 by the time West made his announcement.

According to official campaign finance reports, the rapper eventually qualified to run in 10 states, after spending $6.8 million on his bid.

As a candidate, what did Kanye West offer?

The platform of Mr. West included pledges to "restore faith and revive our constitutional commitment to freedom of religion" and "reform the approach to police in a way that treats all Americans the same," according to his campaign website.

The rapper appeared in front of a black and white American flag in a campaign video released last month, with footage and images of families, including his own, cut in.

Said Mr. West: "America. What is the destiny of America? What would be best for our nation? About our people? Just what is it? Faithful justice? As people, we've got to think about all these things together. We need the vision to contemplate our future, to live up to our dreams."

"As a people, we will revive the dedication of our nation to faith, to what our constitution calls the free practice of religion, including prayer, of course. Faith can be restored through prayer."

"The building blocks of society, of a nation, are families. By turning to faith, we will be the kind of nation God intends us to be, the kind of people."

What's next for West's career in politics?

West did not let his poor performance get him down, and suggested he would run for president again in 2024 immediately after last night's vote.

Next to an electoral map filled with Republican and Democrat wins on Twitter, he posted a photo of himself, accompanying the image with the word "welp" and adding "Kanye 2024..."

Publish : 2020-11-04 18:19:00

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