Rapper’s next role — vice president?
West selected as American Independent party’s No. 2 candidate apparently without his knowledge
As voters in California settle in to fill out their mail-in ballots, they might be surprised to see rapper Kanye West is running for vice president. Turns out he was surprised too.
The two major party tickets — headlined by President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden — are the ones we hear about day in and day out, but in California there are six political parties with presidential tickets on the ballot: Democratic, Republican, Green, Libertarian, Peace and Freedom, and American Independent.
And while West, also a producer, fashion designer and husband to reality star Kim Kardashian, is running for president as a Birthday Party/ Independent candidate in several other states, in California he is listed only as the vice presidential contender for the American Independent Party.
How he got there is a big question mark. West didn’t qualify for the California ballot. But turns out he was selected for the AIP’s No. 2 candidate, apparently without his knowledge or consent, though officials say they did
attempt to contact his campaign. Roque De La Fuente, a perennial presidential candidate known as “Rocky,” is the
lead candidate on that ticket.
The AIP was founded in 1967 and one of its first ac
tions was to endorse George Wallace, the famous segregationist and Alabama governor, when he ran for president in 1968.
Markham Robinson, the “national chairman of the American Independent Party of these United States,” says the party is different now, and it only maintains ballot access in California.
He describes it as a “conservative constitutionalist”
party, and says one motive for the nominations is “to dislodge voting patterns of (Latinx residents), and especially Black (residents), who have been voting Democrat for inadequate reasons.”
If that seems like an odd choice for an anti-immigration party with segregationist origins, Robinson insists it’s not.
“Actually, we are closer to Kanye West’s policies than Rocky’s,” Robinson said. “The guy has some qualities, and we appreciate the portions of his platform that quote scripture.”
Getting on the presidential ballot is no easy feat. Even the most prominent “third” parties like the Green and Libertarian parties don’t make it in each state every year.
In California, if at least one-third of 1% of registered voters are registered in your political party, you get on the ballot automatically. The AIP is one of six “qualified political parties” in the state. If a candidate isn’t running with one of those, they can submit enough signatures to get on the ballot as an independent, but West’s campaign
did not accomplish that feat in the Golden State. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
De La Fuente, a prominent businessman in Southern California, is on the ballot as a presidential candidate in 15 states this year. He ran in the Democratic presidential primary in 2016, and he appeared on the ballot for U.S. Senate in nine states in 2018, including California and Florida.
He did not choose West as his running mate, and has not spoken to him, ac
cording to other news organizations. “I was not consulted to see if I wanted Mr. West as my running mate,” De La Fuente told Newsweek last week. He is on the ballot in 14 other states with a different running mate, author and political historian Darcy Richardson, just as West is on the ballot in 12 other states as the presidential pick, with Michelle Tidball, a life coach in Cody, Wyoming, as his running mate.
West, at one time an avid Trump supporter, garnered international headlines when he announced his
presidential run on Twitter on July 4. He filed the necessary paperwork, and later held a widely publicized and much-criticized rally and news conference. He talked about his platform, engaged with audience members, and criticized Harriet Tubman.
Despite appearing as No. 2 instead of No. 1 on California ballots, West remains committed to his presidential hopes, releasing a campaign video just this week, and tweeting a photo of someone writing his name in for president on their ballot.