What it takes to become president: Fame and fortune

Rapper and celebrity Kanye West has filed to appear on the General Election ballot in eight states, including West Virginia.

West’s surprising run for president, which he announced in early July and is apparently still pursing, brought home some uncomfortable points about what it takes to run for elected office.

Voters like to talk about electing Joe Schmoes — ordinary people who can bring some common sense and working-class perspective back to government — but Joe Schmoe can’t afford to run for office, particularly national offices. There are a confluence of factors that keep the very people we would want in government from running viable campaigns for office.

The first of these is money. State and local elections don’t cost as much to campaign for, but filing fees, campaign signs, campaign swag and radio, TV or newspaper ads still cost money. Over the last few weeks, The Dominion Post has reported on local campaign spending for the primary election. In more than half of the 10 races we’ve reported on, the biggest spender won the race. (We are not counting unopposed primary elections in that number.) Turning to national contests: According to Investopedia, which tracked presidential campaign spending from 1992 through January 2020, usually the candidate who spends the most wins — with a few notable exceptions.

Beyond the matter of money, there’s another barrier to running a feasible campaign: Name recognition.

Having the public know your name isn’t as much an issue for local elections as it is for national elections, but it is still a factor. Most campaigns for state or national offices require a minimum level of name recognition. Candidates achieve that (generally) in one of two ways: Political experience or celebrity. The only thing that makes Kanye West a potentially viable third-party candidate is his fame (name recognition) and wealth (ability to finance a national campaign).

And perhaps that’s what’s wrong with our political system: It favors the rich, the famous and the well-established. The very people we would like to see represent us — because they are us — don’t have the resources to launch successful campaigns. By the time someone we’d like to see in office has worked their way up the political ladder, they no longer have the appeal of being a Washington-outsider or a fresh face. It’s the American paradox: We don’t trust politicians with too little experience and we certainly don’t trust politicians with too much experience. By the time Joe Schmoe works his way up to a congressional or presidential run, voters have started to lose their faith because he’s been in politics too long. But we’re also seeing firsthand what happens when we have someone in the White House with zero political experience.

While West doesn’t stand much of chance of sitting in the Oval Office, his candidacy highlights foundational issues in our election process. Our government isn’t really “by the people” because the average person can’t afford or can’t sustain a campaign for government office.