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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign is spotlighting that 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 Thursday showcased that he has made the ballot in Michigan.
The state is one of seven crucial general election battlegrounds that will likely decide the outcome of the 2024 election rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump.
The campaign announced that Kennedy and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, have been nominated by the Natural Law Party, a small party with ballot access in Michigan. Trump carried the Great Lakes State by a razor-thin margin in his 2016 presidential election victory, and Biden narrowly captured the state four years later, as he won the White House in 2020.
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Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., right, waves on stage with Nicole Shanahan, after announcing her as his running mate, during a campaign event, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
“He’s the most qualified candidate in the modern-day history of America,” Natural Law Party Chairman Doug Dern said in a statement released by the Kennedy campaign. “We welcome Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Shanahan to the party.”
The Michigan Secretary of State’s office confirmed to Fox News that the Natural Law Party had filed their documents with the Bureau of Elections and that Kennedy will appear on the ballot in November.
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The Kennedy campaign announced that Kennedy will “celebrate his ballot access win” this Sunday when he hosts “A Night of Laughter” comedy show at a theater outside of Detroit.
Michigan becomes the second state where Kennedy, a Democrat turned independent, has officially qualified for the ballot, following Utah. And his campaign said that Kennedy has collected enough signatures to meet ballot access thresholds in the battlegrounds of North Carolina and Nevada, the swing state of New Hampshire, as well as Nebraska, Iowa, Idaho and Hawaii.
While attaining a spot on the ballot is a costly and time-consuming venture for independent candidates, Kennedy campaign press secretary Stefanie Spear recently 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.
The Biden 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 re-elected. It’s critical that we take seriously every possible obstacle to that goal,” Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis emphasized in a recent conference call with reporters. “And let me be clear, that’s exactly what Robert F. Kennedy is in this election. He’s a spoiler.”
The threat of Kennedy serving as a spoiler for the Trump campaign is particularly acute in Michigan, where an activist group called Listen to Michigan is pushing for Democrats to reject a second Biden presidency over his support for Israel in the war in Gaza. Michigan is home to the highest per capita Muslim population in the U.S.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at a Cesar Chavez Day event at Union Station on March 30, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Plenty of pundits and pollsters are making the case that Kennedy also could pose a similar problem for Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
And in recent weeks, the former president’s campaign has characterized Kennedy, whose populism on some issues seems similar to Trump’s, as a far-left politician.
Trump recently charged that Kennedy was “the most Radical Left Candidate in the race, by far.”
On Thursday, several members of the Kennedy family appeared with President Biden in Philadelphia to offer their public endorsement for the President over Robert Kennedy Jr.
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.
