Kanye West finally releases 1st campaign ad 3 weeks before the 2020 election

Kanye West attends the WSJ Magazine 2019 Innovator Awards at MOMA on November 6, 2019 in New York City.
(Image credit: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

Months after announcing his 2020 presidential run, Kanye West has finally gotten around to making a campaign ad.

West, the rapper who declared in July he'd be running for president despite it being too late to get on the ballot in every state, dropped a video on Twitter featuring himself speaking in front of an American flag, generic B-roll throughout, and a call for viewers to write his name in this November. The Monday ad was the first West has released, Mediaite notes, even though he threw his hat into the ring over three months ago and the election is just weeks away.

"We as a people will revive our nation's commitment to faith, to what our Constitution calls the free exercise of religion, including, of course, prayer," West says in the video. "Through prayer, faith can be restored."

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West had spoken surprisingly infrequently about his presidential campaign in recent weeks, as he devoted much of his time on Twitter to railing against his recording contract. When he has discussed his campaign, reporter Ben Jacobs observed in September that the rapper for a while had "never explicitly asked Americans for their vote and has instead just announced that he will be president."

Recently, though, West's campaign put out a rare press release after he appeared as a vice presidential candidate in California against his wishes, with West saying, "Californians, I ask for your vote for president and urge you to write in, 'Kanye West.'"

Last month, The New York Times reported that during the course of numerous exchanges, West "made clear he believes he will become president — eventually — but said almost nothing about what he actually wanted to do if elected." His website describes a platform consisting of goals like "restoring prayer in the classroom including spiritual foundations." Brendan Morrow

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan is a staff writer at The Week. A graduate of Hofstra University with a degree in journalism, he also writes about horror films for Bloody Disgusting and has previously contributed to The Cheat Sheet, Heavy, WhatCulture, and more. He lives in New York City surrounded by Star Wars posters.