Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has secured a spot on the Michigan ballot, state officials confirmed Thursday, boosting his potential to influence the November election.
Kennedy’s independent bid has spooked allies of both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees, who fear his famous last name and committed support among a segment of disaffected voters will be enough to swing the election make it tilt.
Biden received statements of support from at least fifteen members of the Kennedy political family during a campaign stop in Philadelphia on Thursday.
A spokesman for the Michigan secretary of state said the Natural Law Party, a small party with an edge on the state’s ballot, nominated Kennedy at a convention.
Kennedy faces an expensive and time-consuming process to get on the ballot in all fifty states and the District of Columbia without the support of a political party.
Michigan is the second state after Utah to confirm its name will be presented to voters. His campaign or an allied super PAC say they have collected enough signatures in several other states, including the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina, but have not yet been validated by election officials.
Third-party and independent candidates face long odds in an American political system largely built around two major parties. Kennedy has acknowledged the obstacles he faces and urged Americans to “take a risk” and vote for him. He said the biggest obstacle to his campaign is the belief that he cannot win.
Kennedy is a leading activist in the movement to reject the scientific consensus that vaccines are safe and effective, and he has built a fervent base of support among voters disenchanted with American institutions.
Stung by losses in two of the last six elections, which many Democrats blame on third-party candidates, the Democratic National Committee has pledged a full-court press to challenge Kennedy, including legal challenges to his access to the ballots and ads linking Kennedy to Trump supporters.
The anti-vaccine group that Kennedy led for years, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit against several news organizations, including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID 19 and COVID -19 vaccines.
