LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain on the ballot for the November presidential election, ending Kennedy’s efforts to withdraw his name from the ballot in support of former President Donald Trump.
Kennedy suspended his third-party presidential campaign and endorsed Trump in August. He sued Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, on Aug. 30 in an attempt to remove his name from the ballot to keep votes from being siphoned off by Trump, who won Michigan by about 10,000 votes in 2016.
Monday’s decision reverses a mid-level appeals court ruling Friday that ensures Kennedy’s name will appear on the ballots of voters in the valuable state despite his withdrawal from the race.
The court said in a brief order that Kennedy “has not shown entitlement to this extraordinary relief, and we reverse the order.”
“This clearly has nothing to do with ballot or election integrity,” Kennedy’s attorney, Aaron Siri, said in a written statement. “The goal is exactly the opposite: to have unwitting Michigan voters throw away their votes for a withdrawn candidate.”
The Associated Press has contacted Benson’s office for comment on the ruling.
Kennedy is trying to withdraw his name from states where the presidential race will be close in November. He won a legal victory in North Carolina and suffered a setback in Wisconsin on Friday.
Democratic-nominated justices currently hold a 4-3 majority on the Michigan Supreme Court. The order was unsigned, and two Republican-nominated justices wrote a dissenting opinion.
“We can only hope that the Minister’s misguided action – now approved with the approval of this Court – will have no national implications,” the dissenting judges wrote.
Kennedy was nominated for president by the Natural Law Party in Michigan. Benson had previously cited a state law that says candidates who are nominated and accept the nomination of a minor party “may not withdraw.”
