A major cash infusion from his running mate helped Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s long-running presidential campaign. to significantly increase spending on ballot access in April.
An $8 million donation from Silicon Valley attorney Nicole Shanahan helped the Kennedy campaign spend $6.5 million in April, almost 50 percent more than in March. A ballot access company was responsible for more than a third of monthly spending, according to a campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Friday evening.
The Kennedy campaign paid more than $2.2 million to Accelevate 2020 LLC, a Texas-based voting access and campaign services company that has previously done work for presidential candidates of both parties, according to FEC records.
The campaign also spent more than $60,000 on voting-related consultations with other vendors and reported paying mail-in ballot filing fees in Illinois and Oklahoma, the latter of which became the fifth state to officially have him on the ballot earlier this month .
Other major spending categories for Kennedy’s campaign in April included $404,000 paid to the Gavin de Becker security services firm, and $398,000 spent on online advertising.
But while Kennedy’s latest campaign finance report indicated serious efforts to get out the vote, it also showed other possible warning signs, including declining small-dollar donations.
Kennedy’s campaign received $843,000 from unified donors — those who gave less than $200 — in April, up from $1.3 million from such donors in March. It was his lowest unified donor total for any month this calendar year.
Small donor money may not be necessary to fund Kennedy’s campaign if Shanahan continues to cut big checks. But funds from donors who give only a little are also an indicator of popular support.
