One of our eleventy billion national nightmares appears to be over. Intelligencer (part of New York Magazine) has an interesting scoop about Kanye West’s now-defunct (??) presidential run. They reached out to Kanye’s campaign staff in Florida over the past few weeks, and while Kanye did have some kind of operation going there – mostly trying to get on the ballot in Florida and some other states – it looks like Kanye has pulled out of Florida. And possibly pulled out of his campaign entirely.

According to multiple campaign professionals who spoke with Intelligencer, West took early steps last week toward getting his name on the ballot in Florida and other states as a third-party candidate running against Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, July 8, around the time West tweeted and deleted an image of a fetus at the six-month mark of gestation with the caption “these souls deserve to live,” I was connected with a source who had been approached to work for the rapper’s presidential campaign. The source, who asked not to be named, was a political operative who had experience in this kind of work. I was extremely skeptical — but after talking with this person and others, I was convinced that West (or someone close to him) was at least toying with a real-life plan to build a campaign operation.

On the morning of July 9, TMZ reported that West’s family was concerned that the billionaire rapper was suffering a bipolar episode based on his presidential aspirations. The well-sourced tabloid website added “our sources say his family and those close to him are worried, but they believe things will stabilize as they have in the past.”

Later that day, I talked to Steve Kramer. He is a get-out-the-vote specialist who runs a firm that also helps candidates get on the ballot. Kramer, who has worked mostly for Democratic candidates but has also had some Republican clients, told me that he had been hired to help West get on the ballot in Florida and South Carolina. He added that his understanding was that West’s team was “working over weekend there, formalizing the FEC and other things that they’ve got to do when you have a lot of corporate lawyers involved.”

This all seemed real enough, and I reached out to West’s publicist for a response. The initial response was to loop in another spokesperson on the email. West’s team then went dark. As I waited for a response, I followed up with Kramer who told me, “He’s out.” I asked what happened. “I’ll let you know what I know once I get all our stuff canceled. We had over 180 people out there today,” Kramer said.

[From Intelligencer]

This Intelligencer piece seems to be getting a lot of attention – the theory being that if Kanye doesn’t appear on the majority of 2020 ballots, somehow he’s not really “running.” I’ll be honest – I think Kanye is still “running” whether or not he’s on the ballot. He’s running in the sense of actively wanting attention, wanting to be a political sideshow, wanting to promote himself. This wasn’t a traditional stunt though – I genuinely believe (as does his family) that this was all part of a manic episode.

50 Cent (who is gross) had some sh-t to say about Kanye’s campaign too – 50 called Kanye a “diversion” and shared a theory that Kanye became MAGA because Barack Obama called Kanye a jackass and “maybe” that’s why Kanye embraced Trump. 50 is problematic AF but he’s dead right on this one.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.