Rap performer and entertainment producer Kanye West has launched a write-in bid for president of the United States, using Twitter and YouTube to urge followers to submit his name on their ballot after failing to qualify or missing the deadline in several states.
West announced the bid first Thursday via Twitter to his 31 million followers, showing a photograph of a ballot under the words "friends writing me in."
He followed that with a video posted to YouTube on Monday, a campaign ad calling for write-in votes.
"We as a people will revive our nation's commitment to faith," West says in the commercial with a black and white American flag waving behind him. "By turning to faith, we will be the kind of nation, the kind of people, God intends us to be."
The end of the message includes block letters urging viewers to "write in Kanye West."
West, 43, who re-affirmed his Christian faith with an announcement on Twitter in January 2019, announced his independent bid for the presidency July 5 via Twitter. He has spent $6 million of his own fortune on the campaign under the Birthday Party, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
He reportedly dropped out of the race less than two weeks later, according to New York Magazine. A vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, West has tacitly admitted his campaign is an attempt to assist Trump by siphoning votes from Democratic rival Joe Biden.
His plea for write-in votes with Thursday's announcement drew howls of outrage on Twitter from ostensibly Biden supporters, the New York Post reported.