Kanye West roared onto the political stage in July with his presidential bid, prompting speculation the famous rap musician could pull enough votes from Democratic nominee former Vice President Joe Biden to tip a close contest to President Donald Trump.
Now, despite his global star power, West is looking more like a blip in the race than a spoiler, weeks before the Nov. 3 election.
West got on the ballot in just a dozen states, not enough to compete in the Electoral College.
Even so, outside candidates can nibble at the edges in a close election.
In Michigan, for example, Libertarian Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, with the Green Party, won a combined 223,599 votes in 2016 in a state Trump carried over Democrat Hillary Clinton by just 10,704 votes.
In Wisconsin, where Trump won by 22,748, the two third-party candidates had a combined 137,746 votes, and in Pennsylvania, Trump edged Clinton by 44,292 votes to Johnson and Stein's total of 196,656.
What can't be known is how many of those votes would have gone to Clinton, versus Trump, versus not voting at all. In 2000, the Florida vote recount between George W. Bush and Al Gore may not have been needed if 97,488 voters hadn't chosen the Green Party's Ralph Nader. Bush pipped Gore by 537 votes.
Minnesota voters have supported third-party candidates in the past, but Ken Martin, the state's top Democrat, isn't worried.
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"We take any candidate on the ballot seriously until we don't need to, and at this point, I would say we definitely do not need to take Kanye West seriously," said Martin, chairman of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
Aside from a rally in South Carolina in July, West hasn't campaigned at all, although on Thursday he tweeted a picture of a California ballot with his name written in as a presidential candidate. Oddly, his name is already on that state's ballot as a vice presidential candidate with the right-wing American Independent Party.
He's also been selling campaign apparel on his website and tweeted a video holding "Vote Kanye" and "Kanye 2020 Vision" hats in front of a television over the heads of Vice President Mike Pence and Biden running mate Sen. Kamala Harris during their debate on Wednesday.
West's campaign didn't respond to requests for comment, but he did report spending $5.9 million on his quixotic run, including $4.1 million to get onto state ballots. While he failed in the swing states of Wisconsin, Ohio and Arizona, he's is on the ballot in Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah -- all states Trump is expected to win. He's also on the ballot in Vermont, which Biden will likely win easily.