Kanye West notches up 60,000 votes in US presidential election

The hip hop star and fashion designer saw his highest numbers in Tennessee, where about 10,000 people cast their ballots for West.

Kanye West appeared to concede defeat while hinting at a future run, tweeting: ‘KANYE 2024’. Picture: AFP

The US was on knife’s edge on Thursday waiting for electoral results, but the fate of one candidate was clear: entertainer Kanye West will not win the 2020 presidential race — but he still has future aspirations.

The mercurial rapper, who decided to run for the nation’s highest office late in the game as an independent candidate under the Birthday Party, received approximately 60,000 votes from the 12 states where he managed to get on the ballot.

A California ballot for the 2020 US presidential election listing US rapper Kanye West as vice-presidential running mate to Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente Guerra for the American Independent party, in Los Angeles. Picture: AFP

The hip hop star and fashion designer saw his highest numbers in Tennessee, where some 10,000 people cast their ballots for West, according to The New York Times.

The mogul who once voiced ardent support for Donald Trump made a social media show of casting his own ballot in Wyoming, saying it was his first ever. West wrote himself in on the ballot in the western state where he failed to qualify to have his name on the ticket.

“God is so good,” tweeted the superstar, who made a turn to Christianity in recent years.

“Today I am voting for the first time in my life for the president of the United States, and it’s for someone I truly trust … me.”

Later he appeared to concede defeat while hinting at a future run, tweeting: “KANYE 2024.”

Big Brooklyn, a 31-year-old rapper and music producer, said in Times Square he had voted for West.

“It’s like everybody’s being distracted by who is going to win,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter who’s going to win if we have a plan in place to present to that president about what we need to have done.”

The campaign by Kim Kardashian’s husband, who suffers from bipolar disorder, raised more questions than enthusiasm.

West long ago broke ranks with most of the left-leaning entertainment industry to loudly voice his support for Mr Trump.

In 2018, they met in the Oval Office — a surreal tete-a-tete that included a hug from the rapper as well as an on-camera rant. In 2019, however, he said his support for Mr Trump had been a way to razz Democrats.

AFP