Kanye West holds his first campaign event...

Kanye West in 2009. David Shankbone.

Kanye West has held his first campaign event for his 2020 Presidential run in South Carolina. ABC News. In the event West made pro-life statements saying that his father wanted to have him aborted and that he almost aborted his own daughter. He said that abortion should remain legal but couples having children should receive up to $1 million dollars. He also said that marijuana should be free. West needs 10,000 signatures in South Carolina to appear in the ballot but the deadline is July 20th. West needs many more states before he could credibly reach the 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. Only 306 votes are up for grabs in states where the filing deadline hasn't already passed. West's campaign was thought dead last week when an insider said that West was dropping out but West is still planing several campaign events. 

My Comment:

West is gaining attention today but not for the event himself. Apparently he said something about Harriet Tubman not freeing the slaves but that's not really that important. What is important is that apparently West is now somewhat serious about his campaign. 

Talk about waiting for the last minute though. West has a day to get the 10,000 signatures he needs to get on the South Carolina ballot and my guess is that he won't make it. If he had started his campaign earlier he could have gotten onto the ballot in all 50 states without trouble but this late in the game he will be lucky if he gets to the 270 electoral vote threshold. 

I'm not sure who Kanye West is trying to appeal to. He's going in hard on abortion but I doubt that many people that care about that issue will like his take on it. He's kind of trying to take a middle ground where he says he hates abortion but still wants it legal. However, I do think that abortion is a major issue among the black community as if it was not as common as it is now, black people would have significantly more political power. The lost thousands of potential voters due to abortion.

Other than that, it's still unclear exactly what West's platform will be. He's both more conservative than Joe Biden while more liberal than Donald Trump. He's trying to take a centrist path when neither candidate is actually that extreme. He doesn't have a signature issue that could propel him into relevancy at this point. Marijuana legalization could be it, as neither Biden or Trump are talking about that, but I don't think that's enough to come in first in a three way race. 

Polling is kind of a joke this early in the race, which is evidenced by all the polls showing Biden ahead of Trump. The only polling I have seen had West at 2%, which isn't that bad considering how late he entered the race. Still, that's not anywhere near enough to come in 2nd in any state, let alone win one. 

West's biggest impact might be as a spoiler. Right now the black community is largely supporting Biden, but if West splits that vote at all then it might be enough to destroy Joe Biden's chances. Will that happen? West has good name recognition and it's possible that the black community would want a black president. But I don't know if West will even get that 2% of the vote. 

Outside of the black community I don't see many people voting for West. The only other group I could see voting for West in wide numbers are the people that view politics as a joke and want to vote for a crazy candidate just to see what he would do. I don't think there are actually that many people that will vote that way.