Kanye West Drops Out of Presidential Race: Report

BY Josiah HughesPublished Jul 15, 2020

Kanye West has spent the first half of the month suggesting that he's running for president — and he's picked up a big (off-and-on) endorsement from one Elon Musk. But his short-lived presidential journey is apparently over.

Political adviser Steve Kramer told New York Magazine's The Intelligencer that Kanye had dropped out of the race (even though it doesn't he was ever officially in it).

"He's out," Kramer said. "We had overwhelming support to get him on the ballot."

Kramer continued: "I have nothing good or bad to say about Kanye. Everyone has their personal decision about why they make decisions. Running for president has to be one of the hardest things for someone to actually contemplate at that level."

He also suggested that this doesn't necessarily mean that Kanye is done with politics for good, adding, "any candidate running for president for the first time goes through these hiccups."

UPDATE (7/15, 4:45 p.m. ET): Despite this report, Kanye seems to have filed the initial paper work with the Federal Election Commission to actually run.

The news came shortly after Kanye had hired a 180-person staff, though he had only been polling at a pretty sad 2 percent.
 

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