Robert F. Kennedy successfully qualified for the California Presidential ballot on Monday.
Kennedy launched his presidential bid in April 2023, starting as a Democrat but later switched to independent in October.
Despite facing criticism for potentially splitting votes, polls showed him with 5% to 12% support. He faced comparisons to Ralph Nader and Ross Perot.
Recently, Kennedy announced Nicole Shanahan as his running mate in Oakland.
However, getting on state ballots was a challenge. They focused on big states like Arizona and California and swing states like Michigan and North Carolina.
Finally, after efforts in California paid off, they secured a spot on the ballot through the American Independent Party.
In a five-minute video announcement, Kennedy said that the AIP, which was once associated with segregationist and former Alabama Governor George Wallace, has undergone a transformation, and “had its own rebirth.”
He further added, “It’s been reborn as a party that represents not bigotry and hatred, but rather compassion and unity and idealism and common sense.” “When they learned about my candidacy, they had just drafted a new charter for their reborn party where they could use their battle line for good for helping independent candidates to unite America without being blocked by the two-party duopoly.”
California became the third state where Kennedy and Shanahan secured a spot on the ballot, joining Utah and Michigan.
They’ve also collected enough signatures for ballot access in seven more states, including Nevada, Hawaii, North Carolina, New Hampshire, and others.
Kennedy, who switched to an independent presidential candidate, aims to be on ballots nationwide, facing off against President Biden and former President Trump.
He believes both party nominees are not suitable for continued leadership and has made this argument repeatedly.
One of the political analysts, Eloise Johnson, said to the Globe on Monday, “Yeah, RFK Jr. can really draw votes from both sides this election,” “He’s got supporters both on the far right and the left. I mean, he still has that Kennedy name, and who thought that we would see a Kennedy in a Presidential election again, even as a third-party candidate?”
Eloise further added that “California just gave his campaign a big boost today by giving him ballot access. And as soon as you have California, it makes things easier elsewhere.”
Kennedy’s campaign is majorly focused to gather signatures in all 50 states before their deadlines. However, experts suggest that he only needs to focus on a few key battleground states to have an impact on Election Day.
While Kennedy is currently polling ahead of other third-party candidates, his numbers have dropped when compared to Joe Biden and Donald Trump, as disclosed in recent polling by Decision Desk HQ and The Hill.
As of Monday, Kennedy had around 8.5 percent of the vote. However, he still trails far behind Trump, who had a little over 42 percent, and Biden, who had nearly 41 percent.
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