Kourtney Kardashian, notable poosh-stirrer, has really stepped in it this time. The reality star is facing backlash for seemingly endorsing Kanye West's impossible — not to mention potentially harmful —presidential campaign.
On her Instagram story on October 15, Kardashian posted a picture along with an article pointing her 102 million followers to an article on her website on "the best voter merch." She also added a little note that her "favorite" was coming on the next slide. The next photo showed her posing while wearing a "Vote Kanye" hat, and then tagged her brother-in-law.
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The weird part is that West's merch isn't even included in the list of non-partisan voter merch in the article. So maybe it was a joke? Let's just say a lot of people don't find it very funny.
"kourtney kardashian posting an insta story to her 102 MILLION followers encouraging them to vote for kanye is one of the most irresponsible, egregious and reckless uses of that family’s platform that i’ve ever seen. #dontnotvoteforkanye," wrote a Twitter user.
"Nothing angers me more than Kanye tryna split the vote. Kourtney was my fav & now her supporting this nonsense too smh," another tweeted.
"Kourtney Kardashian thinks it’s cute and funny that Kanye is meddling with our election," reads another tweet. "She knows her kids will suffer none of the consequences of this election. #letthemeatcake #boycottthekardashians #boycottkanye."
West's presidential campaign only lasted 11 days in July. And though the rapper failed to qualify to compete in the race, he has since encouraged voters to write him in instead — a move that many see as throwing away votes in a very important election.
Earlier this week, Kourtney also was the only Kardashian-Jenner family member to retweet a campaign ad released by West. For the most part, the rest of the family (Kanye aside) like to keep things apolitical, and have been generally encouraging people to exercise their right to vote.
Ironically, Kim Kardashian herself recently posted an Instagram photo encouraging her followers to vote (not for her husband, specifically). "190 Million seriously I love you guys so much!!! I appreciate you all more than you know! Please VOTE! You have the power to change your future!" she wrote in the caption. The move seemed to be inspired in part to make up for West's gaffe the day before, in which he tweeted a video of himself bragging about bogus election results. He mistakenly thought they were early predictions that showed he’s ahead of President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the presidential race in Kentucky, but it was mock election data.
There is a time and place for Kardashian-Jenner shenanigans — but messing around when the future of our democracy and countless lives literally hang in the balance? To that we say don't "keep up," keep it.