Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated Tuesday that he has certified for California’s presidential election poll, giving his third-party candidacy an extended shot probability at amassing 54 electoral votes this fall.
If his spot on the poll is licensed by the California secretary of state, which may are available August, he would signify the American Unbiased Celebration. The secretary of state’s workplace confirmed to The Occasions that Kennedy’s candidacy had been submitted by the celebration.
The celebration has a controversial historical past courting again to 1968, when it nominated Alabama Gov. George Wallace as its candidate for president. He ran opposing desegregation and championing states’ rights. Kennedy’s father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.), was assassinated in Los Angeles the evening he gained that yr’s California presidential main.
Kennedy says he has certified for the poll in California, Hawaii, Michigan and Utah. The political scion has been investing closely and in search of alternate paths to the poll since he opted out of working within the Democratic main late final yr. He lately chosen California tech lawyer, entrepreneur and political newcomer Nicole Shanahan as his vice presidential working mate.
In a video assertion launched Tuesday, Kennedy stated the AIP was “so impressed by this outpouring of democratic vitality and vigor. … So that they approached my marketing campaign and provided us their spot on the California poll. I see this story as a logo of America’s homecoming .”
He added that he noticed Wallace as a “bigot” who “was antithetical to all the things my father believed in.”
Lately, the American Unbiased Celebration has been a supply of confusion for voters in search of to keep away from registering as both a Republican or a Democrat. In California, voters could register as having no celebration desire, however The Occasions reported in 2016 that tens of hundreds of voters had registered for AIP, lots of them in error. Practically three in 4 individuals didn’t understand that they had joined the celebration, a survey of registered AIP voters performed for The Occasions discovered.
The American Unbiased Celebration now exists solely in California, however Wallace gained 46 electoral votes nationally as its customary bearer in 1968, some of the profitable third-party runs in fashionable historical past.
The celebration now is just not segregationist and in recent times officers informed the Occasions that it “is a conservative, constitutionalist celebration.”
Prior to now its opposed abortion, and the 2024 March California main voter information stated that AIP members “are all refugees from the Republican or Democrat events. We consider the Structure is the contract America has with itself. Its willful distortion led to the violation of our tenth Modification assured proper to restricted authorities — which inevitably requires oppressive taxation. Its trustworthy utility will elevate that burden.”
In a press release Tuesday, AIP state Chairman Victor Moroni stated: “All of us deserve to seek out inspiration on the poll field. Our celebration is happy to offer the chance for all 22 million voters in California to vote for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for President. Voters crave an actual chief who will unite America.”
The transfer may have an effect on the presidential race in California, however not sufficient to alter the anticipated final result.
A March ballot from the UC Berkeley Institute of Authorities Research and The Occasions discovered President Biden main former President Trump by 18 proportion factors statewide in a head-to-head matchup. That dropped to 12 factors when impartial and minor celebration candidates similar to Kennedy had been included.
