Kanye West’s campaign submits petition to appear on Missouri ballot in November
Rapper Kanye West’s independent presidential campaign submitted paperwork Monday to appear on the Missouri ballot.
Maura Browning, a spokeswoman for Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, said West’s campaign delivered signatures to the office just ahead of a 5 p.m. deadline. However, Browning stressed that West won’t be on the ballot unless officials are able to verify that the signatures came from at least 10,000 registered voters.
Browning said local election offices would make that determination. If West’s signatures are approved, he’ll appear on the ballot alongside President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden on the ballot.
West had at one point been a vocal Trump supporter, frequently wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat and even visiting the White House in 2018.
West’s campaign has largely been viewed as a publicity stunt to promote an upcoming album. But he will be on the ballot in multiple states. Prior to Missouri, West had filed to appear on the ballot in Illinois and Oklahoma.
The multiple Grammy Award winner has behaved erratically since launching his presidential bid.
West has faced criticism for his promotion of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and his claim that Harriet Tubman, who led at least 70 slaves to freedom before the Civil War, “never actually freed the slaves.”
He claimed on Twitter last week that his wife, Kim Kardashian West, was trying to fly to Wyoming “with a doctor to lock me up like on the movie Get Out” after he had broken down in tears during a campaign event in South Carolina when talking about how the couple considered an abortion before the birth of their daughter.
This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 5:32 PM.
