In the announcement video, West, 70, claims that he cares more about voters and their quality of life than other political parties.

“Neither political party wants to tell the truth about Wall Street, about Ukraine, about the Pentagon, about big tech,” West said. “Do we have what it takes? We shall see.”

West first left a Harvard position in 2002 amid a series of disputes with then-university president Lawrence Summers, joining Princeton University instead. In 2021, West again left a Harvard post over a tenure dispute, accusing the school of “intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy of deep depths.” He is currently the the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary.