RFK Jr says he meets ballot threshold in another key battleground state

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign says the independent presidential candidate has moved a step closer to his goal of getting on the ballot in all 50 states.

The campaign of the longtime environmental activist and high-profile vaccine skeptic, who is the scion of the nation's most storied political dynasty, on Monday announced that it had collected the necessary number of signatures to put "Bobby on the Ballot" in North Carolina.

More than 23,000 signatures were collected through the new political party "We The People," officials with the campaign said. "We The People" was formed in January by supporters of Kennedy to get him on the ballot in six states, including North Carolina — a crucial battleground.

With a little more than seven months to go until the presidential election, Utah is the only state in which Kennedy's name is confirmed to be on the ballot. His campaign says he also has secured enough signatures to land on the ballot in the swing state of New Hampshire and in Hawaii.

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Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. gestures next to Nicole Shanahan as she becomes the ticket's vice presidential candidate, in Oakland, California., U.S., March 26, 2024. REUTERS/Laure Andrillon (REUTERS/Laure Andrillon)

The picture is murkier in Nevada. Kennedy's campaign reported gathering enough signatures, but state election officials last week said that the signatures may be invalid because Kennedy didn't have a running mate at the time they were collected.

The campaign fired back, claiming that Democrats were trying to keep him off the ballot in the key western battleground state.

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Kennedy, at an event in Oakland, California, on Wednesday, announced 38-year-old attorney, tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Nicole Shanahan as his running mate.

The naming of Shanahan will likely boost Kennedy's ballot access bid, as he needs a running mate to qualify in several states.

The campaign said it was already collecting signatures in 16 states before announcing a vice presidential nominee. After Shanahan was added as Kennedy's running mate, 19 additional states opened for petitioning.

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While attaining a spot on the ballot is a costly and time-consuming venture for any candidate not tied to a major political party, campaign press secretary Stefanie Spear emphasized, "We have the field teams, volunteers, legal teams, paid circulators, supporters and strategists ready to get the job done."

Kennedy is polling in the double digits in some national surveys and in polls in some of the key general election battlegrounds — higher than any other third-party or independent White House contender since Ross Perot more than three decades ago. 

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President Biden's campaign and the Democratic National Committee — which recently brought on veteran communicators to target third-party and independent candidates — have repeatedly slammed Kennedy as a potential spoiler whose supporters could hand Donald Trump a presidential election victory in November.

"We are doing everything in our power to get President Biden and Vice President Harris reelected. It's critical that we take seriously every possible obstacle to that goal," Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis emphasized in a conference call with reporters last week. "And let me be clear, that's exactly what Robert F. Kennedy is in this election. He's a spoiler." 

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Plenty of pundits and pollsters are making the case that Kennedy also could pose a similar problem for former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

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And in recent days, the former president's campaign has characterized Kennedy, whose populism on some issues seems similar to Trump's, as a far-left politician.

Trump charged last week that Kennedy was "the most Radical Left Candidate in the race, by far."

And Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt argued in a "Fox and Friends" appearance on Monday that "the polling does indicate that RFK Jr. hurts Joe Biden far more than he hurts President Trump."

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