Super PAC commits $15M to get RFK Jr. on 2024 ballot
- Kennedy is polling higher than any third-party candidate since the 1990s
- RFK camp: Ballot restrictions ‘designed’ to keep third-party candidates out
- The money and lawsuit represent two paths Kennedy and others can take
(NewsNation) — American Values 2024, a super PAC supporting third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said Tuesday it plans to spend up to $15 million getting him on the ballot in 10 states important to winning the 2024 race.
While Kennedy is believed to have cross-party appeal, has raised millions of dollars and is polling at levels not seen by a third-party candidate since the early 1990s, none of it matters if he can’t get on state ballots, a cumbersome process deliberately made difficult by the Republican and Democratic parties over the years.
“The ballot access restrictions in this country are specifically designed by the two-party system leaders to keep out independent candidates,” said RFK Jr. campaign director Amaryllis Kennedy. “These are the leaders who have utterly failed the American people for the last quarter-century and they want to be able to tell you cycle after cycle, ‘You’ve just got a pick from the lesser of two evils.’ We just learned that we won our constitutional challenge against the state of Utah to delay the submission date for our signatures.”
The Utah lawsuit, first reported by the Salt Lake Tribune, asks a federal court to block a Jan. 8 deadline to collect 1,000 signatures backing Kennedy’s plans to join the ballot, citing the difficulty and expense.
The money and the lawsuit represent two different paths Kennedy and other third-party candidates may take to get on state ballots: hiring people to collect signatures and challenging the legality of state requirements.
Reuters contributed to this story.