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Celebrity Status: Presidential

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Bucknell chapter.

Presidential campaigns almost always start three years before election year; and this year’s upcoming elections and especially heated campaigns are encouraging us to be even more politically minded and politically active. So much, in fact, campaigns for the 2020 elections have already begun with Kanye West as the front running man.  

Kanye West announced his plan to run for president in 2020 at this year’s Video Music Awards. West claims, “I’m not no politician, bruh,” that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know what politics is all about, remarking on the decision to have Swift present him with the Vanguard Award this year. “You know how many times they announced Taylor was going to give me the award?  Because it got them more ratings. Listen to the kids, bruh!” Unbeknownst to him, Kanye is a natural politician, and even mailed Swift some beautiful friendship flowers as a thank you. 

Kanye, we hope you’re serious, because Kim would make an excellent First Lady.

Although Lena Dunham likes to think she’s the voice of our generation, she’s wrong. As the social media queen, Kim understands 21st century Americans most of all as she asks the questions we are all wondering and demanding answers. For example, on July 24, Kim emailed Twitter “to see if they can add an edit feature so that when u misspell something u don’t have to delete & repost.” Undoubtedly, Kim is an activist and her political agenda is strong already. In all seriousness @Twitter, get on that feature, thanks. 

Mr. West is not the first celebrity considering a career in politics. From a Hollywood golden era actor who became a conservative presidential icon to a governor who proved it might not be a good idea to vote for an actor with no political experience, many of well-known celebrities have run for office with varying levels of success.

The most famous celebrity to run for president is, of course, the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan. Before becoming commander in chief, Reagan had an active Hollywood career from 1937 to 1964, co-starring in films with stars including Bette Davis and Errol Flynn. 

Most notably, however, is real estate developer and reality television personality Donald Trump’s decision to run for president in 2016. Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015 by denouncing career politicians, asserting that he is more qualified although he is an “outsider” in the political world. Trump said, “Politicians are all talk and no action. They will never be able to fix our country. They will never bring us to the Promised Land, and I cannot sit back and watch this incompetence any longer. Ladies and gentleman, I am officially running for the President of the United States.” 

So, why are all of these famous people suddenly running for president? More importantly however, who will run alongside Mr. West in 2020? We hope it’s rapper Waka Flocka Flame, as his plans to run in 2016 never came to fruition.