Rapper Kanye West‘s presidential campaign has the backing of some high-level GOP operatives who are hoping he can attract Black voters away from Joe Biden’s camp, but according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, that’s going to be a tough sell.
West has 2 percent support overall among registered voters, and is 7 points behind the “no opinion” option, POLITICO reports. Only a meager 2 percent of Black voters support him and Biden’s 9-point national lead over Trump holds firm even if West were to be added to the ballot.
“I think a lot of people of color view Kanye’s bid for the presidency as a quixotic one, and they don’t see him as being legitimate for the office. It’s more of yet another Kanye publicity stunt,” said Ron Christie, a Black Republican strategist and former aide to Dick Cheney. “Democrats traditionally get 90-plus percent of the black vote. I think a lot of people are going to look at Kanye and just say, ‘I don’t think so.'”
“The bottom line is that Kanye West is an entertainer,” said Derrick Clay, an Ohio-based strategist and chair of the state’s Legislative Black Caucus Foundation. “That’s not to say that he can’t participate in electoral politics, but his candidacy is more a distraction.”
“I think that strategy is going to backfire on them,” he added.
Quentin James, executive director of The Collective PAC, told POLITICO that the GOP’s hopes for Kanye are detrimental to his mental health.
“I do think Kanye is, unfortunately, at the whims of folks who don’t have his, his daughter’s, his children’s best interests in mind with their policy,” James said. “To be helping that, I think, is just sad. And I think they’re taking advantage of his mental health situation to be very honest.”
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