Amid Multiple Challenges, RFK Jr. Campaign Chips Away at Ballot Access

Facing continued challenges from Democrats intent on derailing his campaign and an approaching deadline to qualify for CNN’s presidential debate, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on June 13 that he has submitted enough signatures to appear on the general election ballot in Alaska and Tennessee.

The Kennedy–Shanahan ticket is officially on the ballot in eight states—California, Delaware, Hawaii, Michigan, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah.

The campaign said it had collected enough signatures for ballot access in 13 other states—Alaska, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Tennessee.

According to a campaign statement, the Kennedy campaign has submitted enough signatures to gain ballot access in 21 states totaling 292 Electoral College votes.

Those numbers are relevant as the candidate races to qualify for CNN’s June 27 presidential debate before the eligibility window closes on June 20.

By that date, according to debate qualification rules listed by CNN, a candidate’s name must appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold to win the presidency.

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Mr. Kennedy has said multiple times that he will satisfy CNN’s requirements, which include getting at least 15 percent support in four national polls deemed acceptable by the media outlet.

The surveys that CNN says meet its editorial standards and will be considered for debate eligibility are its own, ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, Marquette University Law School, Monmouth University, NBC News, The New York Times/Siena College, NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist College, Quinnipiac University, the Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

According to his campaign, Mr. Kennedy has met the requirements for three of those polls. Last week, he gained 17 percent support in a Marquette Law School survey. In April, he gained 16 percent backing in CNN and Quinnipiac polls.

Mr. Kennedy announced his candidacy to challenge President Joe Biden for the Democratic Party nomination in April 2023.

After encountering multiple roadblocks from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and claiming that the organization was “rigging the primary” to favor President Biden and prevent other candidates from competing, he chose to run as an independent in October 2023.

Since then, Mr. Kennedy has focused on gaining ballot access in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The DNC and pro-Biden organizations have attempted to destabilize his campaign.

Earlier this year, the DNC announced the creation of a team to counter third-party and independent presidential candidates.

It hired Lis Smith, a veteran Democrat strategist who managed Pete Buttigieg’s unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, to spearhead an aggressive communication plan to combat Mr. Kennedy, independent Cornel West, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein.

This year, the DNC has filed three complaints with the Federal Election Commission against American Values 2024, claiming the pro-Kennedy super PAC violated federal campaign finance law.

The legal action alleges that Mr. Kennedy’s campaign submitted invalid petition signatures and participated in fraudulent activities to gather them.

Elaine Portuondo Smith and Andrena Wyatt, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, contend that approximately 115,000 of the signatures submitted in May by Mr. Kennedy’s We the People political party are invalid.

Clear Choice PAC, an organization aligned with President Biden, filed a complaint with the New York Board of Elections last week claiming that Mr. Kennedy lives in California and not at the New York address listed on his petition.

This week, Clear Choice also filed a complaint with the North Carolina State Board of Elections alleging that Mr. Kennedy created a “sham political party” and had misled voters who signed the petition to put him on the state’s ballot.

In January, Mr. Kennedy’s campaign submitted paperwork to create the “We The People” political party. The move was made to get his name on the ballots with fewer voter signatures than those states require for unaffiliated candidates.

Mr. Kennedy’s campaign reported that filing for political party status in those states reduced the number of signatures required for him to gain ballot access by about 330,000.

The DNC and the president’s supporters are accusing Mr. Kennedy of being boosted by the Trump movement.

They highlight policy stances in which Mr. Kennedy and former President Trump share similarities, including border security, funding for Ukraine, and vaccine mandates.

A mobile video billboard—funded by the DNC—circles Mr. Kennedy’s campaign meeting venues with messages claiming he and Ms. Shanahan are elevated by the MAGA movement.

Last October, after he announced that he would run as an independent, Mr. Kennedy told The Epoch Times that his campaign expected organized efforts by both parties to keep him off the ballot and the debate stage.

He vowed that he would be prepared to combat those attempts, and he has said multiple times that he would appear on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Democrats are demonstrating hypocrisy in their efforts to keep him off the ballot, he stated.

“The Democratic Party is supposed to be about exemplifying democracy and being a template for democracy around the world,” he said.