Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Parliament’s first reaction to this week’s debate agreement between President Joe Bidenold President Donald Trump and CNN was accuse them of “collusion” against him. But in a few hours, the independent presidential candidate changed his tone: He would try to win a month-long sprint to meet CNN’s criteria and break the stage.
The question is whether both Kennedy’s ballot access machine and the state government offices that will process his petition signatures are able to move quickly enough to get him on enough state ballots by mid-June to meet the criteria for debate – and what exactly is the point of the cable network? The criteria, which have been used in fall presidential debates for decades, signify a different context at the start of summer.
Kennedy’s campaign had long aimed to get to the polls in all 50 states before Election Day, but the debate sped up its timeline because one of the participation criteria is to be in “a sufficient number of state votes to reach the 270 threshold.” electoral votes to win.” the presidency before the eligibility deadline” a week before the debate.
The Kennedy campaign said the candidate and his team were scheduled to call with CNN on Friday afternoon about the June 27 debate in Atlanta. The campaign did not respond to additional questions Friday about what happened during the call. But in the meantime, it is moving forward with its plans to qualify for the state general election, collecting and delivering petition signatures sooner than initially expected.
A new infusion of cash is supporting the effort. Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s running mate, announced during a campaign event in Nashville on Wednesday that she would donate an additional $8 million to the campaign, which would cover her ballot access budget. As a running candidate, she can contribute unlimited amounts of her own money to the campaign.
Biden and Trump have already agreed to participate in the CNN debate, bypassing the traditional Presidential Debate Commission, but using criteria very similar to those that the non-partisan commission has used. One key difference: Commission debates always took place in the fall, when general election ballots were set and ready to be presented to voters.
This time, Kennedy is still in the midst of his efforts to gain access to the polls, managing state deadlines spread out over the summer. Even Biden and Trump will not have formally secured their party nominations and election positions at the conventions until June 27, although both are presumptive candidates after easily sailing through the 2024 primaries. Kennedy campaign director Amaryllis Fox Kennedy noted the moment of the convention in a social media post Friday night.
Frank Fahrenkopf, co-chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, said in an interview Friday with Politico that Kennedy could have grounds to sue CNN over its debate criteria, although he also noted that the commission has regularly faced lawsuits from third-party candidates over the years, which the candidates have regularly lost. The criteria also included a polling element: at least 15% support in four qualified national polls, with Kennedy already reaching that mark in two.
This makes access to the ballot box the most difficult obstacle for Kennedy. Their uphill battle to reach 50 state ballots includes a variety of state deadlines for submitting signatures and verification. Although the Kennedy campaign has touted its signature-gathering efforts in many states, it has been formally approved for voting in relatively few, and a sampling of different state rules shows why simply speeding up signature gathering may not be enough.
In the crucial swing state of Arizona, for example, the filing period for independent candidates to turn in ballot access petition signatures doesn’t begin until July 28, the secretary of state’s office said. This was more than a month after the CNN presidential debate.
Other states have similar rules, including New Hampshire, where the campaign cannot submit signatures until mid-June. It’s unclear how many states have such rules, but even in those that don’t, getting to the polls is more complicated than just turning in the minimum number of required signatures.
In Texas, Kennedy said Monday, his campaign has gathered and submitted enough signatures to qualify for the ballot there. But it hasn’t officially joined yet: The Texas secretary of state’s office told NBC News that signatures are still in the process of being verified, with no estimate of how long it will take.
As Kennedy delivers signatures to get on the state ballot, he can also expect to face potential challenges to those signatures, which could delay their official entry onto the ballot. It is a relatively common process – but the time constraints of the June debate add a new element of urgency. In Michigan on Friday, for example, state and national Democratic Party groups asked election officials to investigate allegedjust fraudulent subscriptions in petitions from Republican candidates.
Kennedy is currently on the ballot in six states, including electoral vote-rich California and battleground Michigan, where he was nominated by third-party groups, taking the ballot seat of established parties.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
