Kanye West withdraws from 2024 U.S. presidential election

United States rapper and Grammy Award winner, Kanye West, has canceled his plans to run in the 2024 U.S. presidential election after previously announcing his plans to make a second bid for office.

West, now known as Ye, made this known via his lawyer, Bruce Marks, on Friday, October 20, 2023.

Marks said the 46-year-old rapper is no longer a candidate for office in 2024 and is currently in the process of “winding down his campaign apparatus”.

Right-wing political pundit, Milo Yiannopoulos, had earlier announced that he was “director of political operations” for the campaign.

Yiannopoulos, who has been criticised for his seemingly “misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, transphobic” views, has since left the YE24 team and has been replaced by the campaign’s treasurer prior to this latest development.

According to an October Federal Election Commission filing, West’s campaign hadn’t raised any money or allocated funds towards raising awareness towards the rapper’s presidential bid. The campaign reportedly only has $25,000 remaining in campaign funds as of press time.

The Chicago native ran for president in the 2020 election, campaigning under his own Birthday Party banner.

Rumored to have spent around $9 million of his own money during his presidential bid, Ye’s campaign was considered a massive disappointment to his detractors, as the rapper was only included on ballots in 12 states, accumulating a paltry 60,000 votes in total.

Ahead of the election, he spoke with Forbes about his disdain for the Black community’s implied loyalty to the Democratic Party, deeming it a detriment to the empowerment of Black people.

West said: “That is a form of racism and white supremacy and white control to say that all Black people need to be Democrats 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. And Democrats used to tell me, the same Democrats have threatened me… The reason why this is the first day I registered to vote is because I was scared. I was told that if I voted on Trump my music career would be over.

“I was threatened into being in one party. I was threatened as a celebrity into being in one party. I was threatened as a Black man into the Democratic party. And that’s what the Democrats are doing, emotionally, to my people. Threatening them to the point where this white man can tell a Black man if you don’t vote for me, you’re not Black.”

The Star