RFK Jr. Gains Florida Ballot Access Amidst Uni-Party Obstructions in New York and Elsewhere
FL Reform Party Nomination Paves the Way for Historic Candidacy
By Richard Luthmann
The Florida Division of Elections has recertified the Reform Party, granting Independent Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ballot access in Florida. This significant step marks a crucial victory for Kennedy's campaign.
“We’re thrilled to give Floridians an independent option this November,” said Reform Party of Florida Chair Jenniffer Desatoff. “We've been eagerly waiting to collaborate with the Kennedy Campaign here in Florida and make history together.”
At the same time, Team Kennedy is feeling the heat in New York. Democratic Party operatives claim Kennedy is not a resident of New York, the state his father represented in the U.S. Senate before his assassination. The Uni-Party is taking Kennedy to court to have him tossed from the ballot.
Fundraising Windfall and Strategic Boost
Two weeks ago, the National Committee of the Reform Party voted to nominate Kennedy, granting him ballot access in Florida and providing significant fundraising advantages. This strategic move expands Team Kennedy's reach and allows individuals to donate a maximum of $6,600 to the campaign.
With the Reform Party nomination, the party could raise an additional $41,300 from individual donors and spend it coordinating with the campaign to support Kennedy. This party contribution limit is more than six times the campaign contribution limit, supercharging Kennedy’s fundraising efforts.
The Reform Party, founded in 1996 by supporters of Ross Perot, the most successful independent candidate in the last century, aims to provide voters with an alternative to the two major parties.
Vice Chairman Matthew Crowley expressed his enthusiasm for the nomination, stating, “I look forward to working with his campaign, and I’m glad to be bringing back the spirit of independence for the first time since Perot.”
The party’s rules require it to nominate a presidential candidate, who then picks its vice-presidential candidate. Kennedy accepted the Reform Party nomination and chose Nicole Shanahan as his running mate.
Aggressive Ballot Access Operation
![Nicole Shanahan [Center Left] joins running mate Bobby Kennedy [Center Right] while their respective spouses flank them.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb56fec83-ddca-48bc-81c5-10966b79929b_1024x576.jpeg "Nicole Shanahan [Center Left] joins running mate Bobby Kennedy [Center Right] while their respective spouses flank them.")
Kennedy’s campaign has mounted an aggressive ballot access operation, ensuring the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket is on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The operation is fully funded, and more than $15 million has been raised. The ticket is officially on the ballot in nine states: Utah, Michigan, California, Delaware, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Texas, South Carolina, and now Florida.
The campaign has collected enough signatures for ballot access in ten other states: New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio, New Jersey, and New York. With signatures secured in 19 states, Kennedy is poised to make a significant impact. Florida alone adds 30 electoral votes to the tally.
Late Friday, the Kennedy campaign announced it had submitted the required signatures to gain ballot access in Minnesota and surpassed eligibility for 270 electoral votes.
National Polls and Campaign Momentum
Recent polls show Kennedy is gaining momentum in the presidential race and has a chance to be a difference-maker.
Last month, Team Kennedy released a Zogby poll showing that Bobby Kennedy could win the election if the race were not a three-way. Kennedy beats both Presidents Biden and Trump in head-to-head matchups.
Trump defeats Biden handily, but Kennedy edges out Trump in a two-way race by a tight margin. In a two-way race between Kennedy and President Biden, Kennedy wins in a landslide. Kennedy is the first independent to defeat both major party candidates in head-to-head matchups.
Legal Battles in New York
The Uni-Party's attempts to obstruct Kennedy's candidacy are evident, particularly in robust Democratic Party strongholds like New York. However, undeterred by these challenges, Kennedy's campaign filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York last month to protect the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket.
On May 28, RFK Jr. submitted a record 135,000+ signatures to get on the presidential ballot in New York, three times the required 45,000 valid signatures. This move is crucial as it allows him to secure an independent N.Y. ballot line statewide in 2025 and 2026 with a solid presidential showing of 130,000 votes.
However, the New York Party Political Machine is contesting Kennedy's candidacy. Democratic Party operatives claim Kennedy is not a resident of New York, the state his father represented in the U.S. Senate before his assassination.
Biden-Connected Clear Choice PAC and Democratic Party Efforts
A Political Action Committee (PAC) aligned with President Biden has challenged Bobby Kennedy's ballot access petition with New York State officials. They argue that RFK Jr.'s name should not be on the fall ballot. This group, called Clear Choice PAC, contends that Kennedy’s campaign lied about his New York residency.
President Biden's allies have formed Clear Choice to prevent third-party or independent candidates from gaining traction before the November election. The group is already pushing storylines in the media to dissuade voters from supporting independent campaigns. Targets include Kennedy, academic activist Cornel West, and other third parties. Clear Choice’s founder, Pete Kavanaugh, is a strategist who served as deputy campaign manager in Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.
“It’s imperative that this election is a clear choice between President Biden and Donald Trump. No third-party or independent candidate has any chance of winning a state in November, never mind reaching 270 electoral votes,” Kavanaugh said in a statement. “They are spoilers, plain and simple. We’re here to work with allies to ensure those candidates are held accountable and everything is on the table.”
Residency Controversy
Clear Choice says Kennedy moved to the West Coast long ago and has virtually no connection to the New York address listed on his petitions, which is an address of a longtime friend where Kennedy’s campaign acknowledges he has never lived. Objectors filed the complaint with the New York State Board of Elections (NYSBOE) on Thursday afternoon, and it is one of more than a dozen filed with the NYSBOE, some of which object to his campaign’s signature-gathering efforts.
Kathleen McGrath, an NYSBOE spokeswoman, said a residency determination would be “outside the ministerial scope” of the board’s review of petitions. She noted that courts and judicial proceedings would be the appropriate venues for challenging his residency.
Despite this, residency challenges will likely stall Kennedy’s ballot access push in New York and possibly elsewhere, as he has used the same address in other states where he is filing to run.
Kennedy's running mate, Nicole Shanahan, lists California as her home, adding another complication. The Twelfth Amendment says that presidential and vice-presidential candidates from the same state are ineligible to receive electoral votes from their home state electors. If Team Kennedy were to win California AND RFK Jr. were determined to be a California resident, the electors could only vote for Kennedy OR Shanahan.
Response from Team Kennedy
Kennedy’s campaign insists his current address in Katonah, NY, is legitimately his official address.
“He receives mail there. His driver’s license is registered there. His automobile is registered there. His voting registration is from there,” the campaign said. “He pays rent to the owner.”
Bobby Kennedy has deep ties to New York. His campaign says he has been a permanent resident of the state since 1968, the year his father was assassinated in Los Angeles. In 1982, at age 27, he was hired as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan. He later worked for decades as an environmental lawyer for Riverkeeper, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting and restoring the Hudson River.
Team Kennedy Confidence
Kennedy’s achievement of ballot access in Florida marks a significant milestone for his independent campaign. As he continues to battle for ballot access in other states, including New York, his campaign faces substantial challenges from established political operatives. The outcome of these legal battles will be crucial in determining the viability of his candidacy in the upcoming presidential election. However, Team Kennedy is confident, having just hit the 270 electoral vote threshold.
“This is a tremendous victory for the campaign and the thousands of volunteers nationwide who have hit the streets with clipboards in hand and canvassed America to put ‘Bobby on the Ballot,’” said Senior Advisor and Ballot Access Director Nick Brana. “Come November, for the first time in decades, everyone across the country will have an independent choice who will end the wars, break up the corporate state, and make life affordable.”