Kanye West spent $13.2 million — including $12.5 million of his own — on his 2020 presidential campaign, according to his final Federal Election Commission report.
The Jesus Is King emcee only raised a little more than $2 million from 3,047 outside contributions. According to Billboard, of those contributors, “more than one third — 1,191 — self-identified as students, pitching in $60 to $4,220. More than 20% identified as self-employed and nearly 11% as not-employed.”
He reportedly ended the race with only $1.3 million on hand after spending the majority of his campaign funds on “ballot access” services and consulting. His second-largest expense of $918,130 went to Los Angeles Apparel for campaign attire.
West was able to garner almost 67,000 votes nationally. He finished in sixth place among all candidates, even though he was missing from ballots in several states. He was only able to appear on state ballots in Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Idaho, Minnesota, Utah, Tennessee and Vermont.
For his campaign, the Chicago native focused on family and faith. Back in October, West debuted his first campaign ad. In the video, the Graduation rapper stood behind a podium and talked about the two topics. A black and white American flag and footage of various families, including his own, were promoted in the background.
“What is America’s destiny? What is best for our nation, our people? What is just?… We have to think about all these things together as a people,” he said.
“To live up to our dream, we must have vision. We, as a people, will revive our nation’s commitment to faith, to what our constitution calls the free exercise of religion, including, of course, prayer. Through prayer, faith can be restored. We, as a people, are called to a greater purpose than ourselves,” West continued, adding that Americans must build stronger families to create a stronger foundation for the nation.
West lost the election to President Joe Biden, but he did hint at possibly running again in 2024.