Kanye West by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
Kanye West's 2020 campaign for President is supported by just 2% of Black voters, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. His support among overall registered voters is also stuck at 2% — for comparison's sake, the "no opinion" option of the poll was chosen by 9% of registered voters.
Pundits from across the political spectrum insisted that West's presence on the ballot would siphon votes away from Democratic nominee Joe Biden, but Biden's nine-point lead over President Donald Trump is unchanged with the addition of West to the ballot. "It’s more of yet another Kanye publicity stunt,” Ron Christie, a Black Republican strategist, told Politico. "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 poll may trouble the Republican operatives who have been working to get Kanye West on the ballot in order to help Trump in swing states. Their efforts have faced headwinds: West's nominations in Illinois and Wisconsin have been challenged with allegations that fake names and addresses were used.
West's polling has remained stagnant since June, when a separate poll from Redfield & Wilson Strategies found 2% of registered voters supporting his candidacy. Since then, West has held a widely-criticized campaign rally in South Carolina that caused his wife Kim Kardashian-West to raise concerns for his mental health.
