Kanye West appears to concede in presidential bid but launches Kanye 2024

Kanye West has said he will continue with his presidential ambitions as he appeared to concede in the 2020 race.

The rapper launched his longshot bid for the White House in July but it has been hampered by repeated failures to make the ballot in several states.

He had asked fans to back him as a write-in candidate.

Sharing a photo on Twitter of himself in front of the electoral map as votes are counted across the US, he wrote: “WELP KANYE 2024.”

In October, just weeks before the election, the devoutly religious West tweeted his first campaign video, promising a focus on faith if he made it to the Oval Office.

“We as a people will revive our nation’s commitment to faith, to what our Constitution calls the free exercise of religion, including, of course, prayer,” West said in the advert, which featured a black-and-white American flag.

“Through prayer, faith can be restored. 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, who has been vocal in his anti-abortion stance, promised to “build a stronger country by building stronger families” if he won power.

He added: “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.”

A message at the end of the video asks voters to “write in Kanye West”. A write-in candidate is someone whose name does not appear on the ballot but is instead physically written in by a voter.

Fans of West have been sharing photos of their ballots, with his name added in by hand.