Kanye West’s political career continues as he works to get on the ballot in South Carolina, holding his first rally. Ava DeSantis writes on the details of West’s event.
On Saturday, Kanye West tweeted, asking his supporters to sign a form to get him on the ballot in South Carolina, indicating his campaign works to organize itself for election day.
Yesterday, in North Charleston, South Carolina, West held his first rally of his 2020 Presidential bid. South Carolina requires 10,000 signatures of support from South Carolina voters by today in order for a candidate to appear on the ballot in the general election.
At his rally, West expanded on his vision of himself as the candidate of God, while notably dedicating most of his time to hearing the interests and concerns of his supporters. West invited his supporters onstage to raise their concerns about his platform, the nation’s problems, and personal anecdotes.
West began the rally by asking his supporters, “what is the number one thing you guys want to change?” The crowd responded, overwhelmingly, “education.” West then invited a young woman onstage to discuss how education can improve. The supporter accused schools of “brainwashing” students and “whitewashing history.” The crowd cheered.
To quiet the crowd, West invoked his familiar ego, threatening his supporters: if they did not quiet, the rally would end. If the rally ends, said West, West himself is over, and “if I’m over right now, your country is over right now.”
America, West believes, needs him to lead. “I’m excited,” he said. “It’s a new world, you have someone who’s not afraid of anyone, that’s only afraid of God.” West said he stopped supporting President Trump when Trump hid in a bunker during police brutality protests in Washington, DC.
Kanye believes he is a “genius,” who was “admitted to the hospital because his brain was too big for his skull.” West went to a hospital in Los Angeles, California, in 2016, suffering from exhaustion and sleep deprivation.
Later in the rally, West said, unprompted, “Harriet Tubman never actually freed the slaves, she just had the slaves go work for other white people,” before returning to discussing his religious convictions. “We are all equal,” said Kanye, “sometimes people are controlled by demons. There are no bad people, there are lost people, but we are all God’s people.”
West invited another young woman onstage to discuss her concerns, this time with his pro-life stance. West said in his first interview of the campaign, with Forbes, “I am pro-life because I’m following the world of the bible.” He continued his criticism of abortion onstage in South Carolina, comparing the pro-choice anthem ‘my body, my choice,’ to a woman saying “my house, my choice,” and killing her child.
The woman described her recent abortion, because she could not afford to raise a child. West acknowledged that financial hardship can make raising a child impossible. Therefore, West argued, seemingly spontaneously, for a “maximum increase,” which would provide every woman “a million dollars or something in that range.” An alliance would fund the program, an alliance with other ‘anti-abortion countries,’ like countries ‘in the African continent,’ and Israel.
“If you have the opportunity to be given a million dollars, just for being pregnant, would you have considered it?” he asked the supporter, to no response. “And then everybody would start having children, the greatest gift of life.”
West referenced his own personal experience with abortion. “My mom,” West claimed, “saved my life. My dad wanted to abort me. My mom saved my life. There would’ve been no Kanye West because my dad was too busy.”
He also claimed that his now wife, reality star Kim Kardashian West, considered aborting his eldest daughter. Kardashian West “[had] the pills.” West cried onstage, saying “I almost killed my daughter.” However, abortion would remain legal under a West administration, Kanye promised.
West’s rally begins a campaign which appears increasingly absurd and serious, as West articulates unheard-of policies and plans which may appear on the ballot in South Carolina.