He’s rarely been in the political spotlight since the June 27 presidential debate that drove Joe Biden out of the race and elevated Vice President Kamala Harris. But Robert F. Kennedy Jr. assured voters Wednesday his independent bid for the White House is alive and well.
And, his campaign says, he’ll be on the ballot in Pennsylvania.
During a press call, his campaign announced it’s turning in nearly three times the number of signatures required to appear on the Keystone State ballot.
“[Pennsylvanians] want Kennedy on the ballot — the leader who cares about them, their families, their food, their health, and their ability to live a quality life,” said his Pennsylvania State Director Bill Cox.
Kennedy filed to get on the Pennsylvania ballot in late June, submitting more than 9,000 signatures to the Department of State. He followed that up by turning in just under 4,000 earlier this week.
Pennsylvania law requires 5,000 certified signatures to get on the ballot. The deadline to submit signatures is August 1. It will take time for Pennsylvania officials to validate the signatures.
The Kennedy campaign says it’s collected enough signatures to appear on 34 states’ ballots.
Third-party and independent ballot petitions are regularly challenged by Republicans and Democrats. In Kennedy’s case, Democrats across the U.S. have launched multiple efforts to block him from appearing on the ballot, and the Pennsylvania party is expected to follow suit.
Texas Democrats accused Kennedy of falsifying most of the 245,000 signatures that the campaign turned in to the secretary of state. The state was urged to remove Kennedy’s name from the ballot. Another challenge in Illinois is ongoing, though campaign officials expressed confidence they would come out on top.
Other Democratic challenges haven’t been successful. The Democratic National Committee failed to remove Kennedy from the Hawaii and North Carolina ballots.
There’s also an ongoing legal fight in Nevada over Kennedy’s ballot petitions because they were submitted before Silicon Valley attorney Nicole Shanahan was named his running mate.
The deadline for Pennsylvanians to challenge any ballot petitions is August 8.
Kennedy’s campaign said it validates every signature on ballot petitions. Campaign manager Amaryllis Fox Kennedy said during a press event that organizers follow each state’s certification process to avoid having signatures rejected. It’s to prevent what she called a “‘Hold your breath, will it get certified to not?’ situation.”
Despite the Kennedy name and ballot petition victories, RFK Jr’s independent presidential bid hasn’t gained traction in the polls. The RealClearPolitics poll average for the Keystone State showed Kennedy with 4.4 percent support in a five-way race topped by Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. That’s down almost a point from when the race was between Trump and President Joe Biden. Biden dropped out of the race in July.
Pennsylvania Democrat strategist T.J. Rooney dismissed Kennedy’s role in the race.
“He will matter as much as [fellow independent candidate] Cornel West,” Rooney told DVJournal. “No matter, his presence on the ballot is a stain on a great family name.”
Republicans aren’t so sure.
Longtime Pennsylvania GOP strategist Charlie Gerow told DVJournal that Kennedy’s support is probably bigger than people think.
He’s skeptical Kennedy will win any states on Election Day. The only independent presidential candidate to do that in recent times was George Wallace, who won five states in 1968. When Ross Perot ran on the Reform Party ticket in 1992, he received 18.9 percent of the popular vote but carried no states.
Gerow said Kennedy’s campaign matters for both Pennsylvania and the country. “The only question is whether he polls strongly enough to make a true difference in the outcome, here or elsewhere.”
The campaign claimed its ballot access operation collected and turned in a million signatures across the country, a first in American history. It’s qualified to be on the ballot for 13 states and has submitted signatures to be on the ballot in 19 others, including Pennsylvania.
“We have been able to overcome impossible odds,” said Kennedy during a press event on Wednesday.
He added he hopes to be on the ballot in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
