Just before noon Friday, Chicago supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. burst into cheers in a windowless downtown government meeting room after the Illinois State Board of Elections ruled that he could remain on the November ballot as an independent presidential candidate.
Less than two hours later, Kennedy took the stage in Phoenix to announce he was suspending his campaign, taking his name off the ballot in key swing states and endorsing the Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump.
Kennedy said that he’s still looking to garner votes in states that are solidly red or blue — which would include strongly Democratic Illinois — but said his decision to remove himself from the ballot in more purple states could throw crucial support toward Trump.
“It’s with a sense of victory, and not defeat, that I’m suspending my campaign activities,” Kennedy said. “We changed the national political conversation forever.”
Both Democrats and Republicans have worried that Kennedy could siphon votes from their candidates. Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, recently suggested their ticket may be drawing more votes from Trump. She and Kennedy were looking to avoid the “risk” of a victory for Vice President Kamala Harris, Shanahan said on the podcast “Impact Theory” earlier this week.
Kennedy’s address Friday afternoon bashed Democrats, the media and the Democratic National Convention, which wrapped up Thursday in Chicago, saying that they had prevented him from having a fighting chance, especially in the primary elections.
The Illinois state board decision, which can be appealed, was a victory for Kennedy’s campaign. After it was issued, however, his volunteers continued to express frustration about the difficulty of getting any independent candidate on the general election ballot.
“It’s too hard,” volunteer leader Bob Lytle repeatedly told the board of the process for getting a candidate from outside the major parties on the ballot. “The election board does not make these rules, but the person who put you here … they darn well can change that, and we will be calling our representatives to say, ‘Change it and make it easy to get on the ballot.’”
Lawyers working to get Kennedy removed from the ballot said that, among other issues, he had incorrectly listed New York as his residence on paperwork. A judge in New York earlier this month ruled that Kennedy should not be on that state’s ballot due to the residency issue, The Associated Press reported.
“This is an attack on the electoral process,” attorney Steven Laduzinsky said of Kennedy’s decision to list a New York address
“What Mr. Kennedy did is very simple: he lied,” Laduzinsky said. “A false statement was submitted.”
Friday’s board decision came months after objectors backed by an organization aligned with President Joe Biden, called Clear Choice Action, challenged Kennedy’s appearance on the Illinois ballot.
Kennedy is the son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy. Despite being born into the deeply Democratic family, the junior Kennedy has embraced some policies that are diametrically opposed to the current mainstream in the party, including being skeptical of vaccines and against U.S. support of the war in Ukraine.
Walking from the state board meeting to a watch party of Kennedy’s announcement, Lytle acknowledged that the race might be about to change.
But the “campaign continues regardless,” he said.
“We are – we’re here because of Kennedy but we’re not really. We’re here because of independents. People want independents. They want a third party or a fourth party or a fifth party. And that fight continues,” he said.
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