Kanye West spent nearly $12.5 million of his own money on his presidential campaign.
Having earned just 66,000 votes across the U.S., meant each tick in the ballot box cost an average of $200 each.
According to a report from the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the majority of Kanye’s $14,538,989 campaign funds paid for “ballot access,” and he was left with $1.3 million at the end of the campaign.
A total of $7.5 million went to ballot access, with $1.28 million of that paid to Atlas Strategy Group, but it seems the investment wasn’t a great success because the “Stronger” hitmaker only made it as a candidate in 12 states.
Other major costs included legal fees, Kanye 2020 apparel, and production for online videos used to promote his campaign, though the rapper – who is going through a divorce from wife Kim Kardashian – and his team opted against purchasing TV, radio or digital advertising, which many experts believed was a mistake.
Towards the end of the campaign, Ye added over $2.7 million of his own money to the funds, but the insider believes Kanye “overpaid on a lot of stuff.”
According to the FEC report, Kanye shelled out $210,544 for a two-page advertisement in The New York Times and another $918,130 for more campaign apparel on Election Day.
By contrast, new President Joe Biden raised over $1 billion for his campaign, while his predecessor, Donald Trump, raised more than $811 billion.