Democrats Target RFK, Jr.’s Ballot Access
Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will not appear on the New York ballot in November’s presidential election, a state judge ruled Monday. Kennedy collected enough signatures to qualify, but the judge ruled it invalid over what he said was Kennedy’s “sham” address. A Democrat-aligned political action committee, Clear Choice Action, backed a lawsuit against Kennedy’s New York residency, as well as lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Illinois.
“This case is an assault on New York voters,” Kennedy complained in a press release. “The DNC has become a party that uses lawfare in place of the democratic election process.”
The case recalls Democratic attempts earlier this year to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot in Colorado, Maine, and elsewhere. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down those efforts in a 9-0 ruling.
Democrats worry that Kennedy has enough support to play spoiler in a close election. As of Tuesday, Kennedy was polling at 5% support nationwide in the RealClearPolitics average of polls, placing third behind Vice President Kamala Harris (45.4%) and Trump (44.6%). The Kennedy campaign has qualified for the ballot in 19 states, including Michigan and North Carolina, and it claims to have the signatures needed for ballot access in 45 states.
Consequently, The New York Times reports that “the Democratic Party has dedicated a substantial legal and ground operation to challenging third-party candidate ballot access, which party leaders view as a threat to the Democratic ticket.”
Democrats in Washington State have also launched an effort to keep Kennedy off the ballot there, arguing that the 4,181 signatures his campaign submitted were not collected at a party convention as required by law. The Kennedy campaign has defeated Democratic efforts to kick his name off the ballot in other states, including Hawaii, Idaho, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Utah. However, election-related litigation could consume a substantial portion of the Kennedy campaign’s available funding, which is already tight.
“Rather than making a positive case for their nominee,” the Kennedy campaign alleged, “the Democratic Party is politicizing our nation’s courtrooms in an effort to restrict voters’ rights to choose the candidate they like best.”
In a January 2024 speech in Valley Forge, President Joe Biden, then running for re-election, declared, “Today, I make this sacred pledge to you. The defense, protection, and preservation of American democracy will remain, as it has been, the central cause of my presidency.”
After cruising through primary season largely uncontested, Biden abruptly dropped out of the race in late July, after a poor debate performance and endorsed Harris as his replacement. Harris ran for president once before in 2020, but she dropped out of the race before primary voting began.
“We’re living in an era where a determined minority is doing everything in its power to try to destroy our democracy for their own agenda,” Biden warned.