Kanye West, who once admitted to being $53 million in personal debt, spent about $12.5 million of his own money on his late presidential campaign, which took place under his independent Birthday Party. The campaign’s financial records reportedly prove that $13.2 million was spent trying to secure votes for Kanye’s run, with the majority of which coming from the artist’s own pockets.
The report is being made using Kanye’s final Federal Election Commission filing, and it shows that West spent about $200 for every vote that he received. Nationally, the artist secured 66,000 votes.
His campaign only ran for about four months, shutting down and profiting about $1.3 million. Much of the money spent went toward ballot access, which didn’t end up making much of a difference as he was absent on the ballot in most states.
“It wasn’t your traditional campaign,” said a political source who helped West in the summer. “He isn’t versed enough politically. He figured that by doing it on his own, he could control his own media. But he has so much other stuff going on in his life that has nothing to do with politics that the distractions are there.”
Kanye has been in the news recently after his wife Kim Kardashian West filed for divorce. There has been a lot of chatter surrounding their future, trending over the last few weeks.
Do you think Kanye will have better luck if he runs again in 2024?