With a little more than three weeks before Election Day, but with early voting already started in several states, ostensible presidential candidate Kanye West is calling for voters to write in his name in his first campaign advertisement.
West, 43, who has been kicked off the ballot in a number of states despite the efforts of Republican operatives, referenced the write-in campaign last week in a tweet that showed a picture of a ballot with his name written in, despite appearing on the ballot already as the vice president nominee of the American Independent party and despite such pictures being illegal in multiple states.
"America. What is America's destiny? What is best for our nation, our people? What is just, true justice? We have to think about all these things together as a people. To contemplate our future, to live up to our dreams, we must have vision," West says in the ad, which was also posted on his personal Twitter account.
"We as a people are called to a greater purpose than ourselves. We are not only a beacon to the world, but we should be servants to each other _ to encourage each other, to help each other, to lift up each other, our fellow Americans, that we may all prosper together," West says.
"We have to act on faith with the sure knowledge that we are pursuing the right goals and doing the right things. We will build a stronger country by building stronger families. Families are the building blocks of society, of a nation. By turning to faith we will be the kind of nation, the kind of people, God intends us to be."
West, who claims to be running under the Birthday Party, ends the video by encouraging voters to "write in Kanye West."
West has polled in the low single digits when he has been included in surveys.
If West were to win as a write-in candidate, he would surpass Strom Thurmond who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1954 following a successful write-in campaign. Thurmond ended up serving until 2003.
