Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign has faced numerous challenges, but he has so far made it onto the ballot in 19 states.
These are Alaska, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Up until this week, the list included New York but, on Monday, Kennedy was blocked from appearing on the state’s ballot in November.
Albany Supreme Court Justice Christina Ryba ruled that Kennedy falsely stated his address on the petitioning documents required to appear on New York’s ticket after a lawsuit, brought by the Democrat-aligned political action committee Clear Choice.
The lawsuit could affect whether he is able to be placed on the ballot in other states because the constitution says presidential and vice-presidential candidates cannot come from the same state and Kennedy’s running mate Nicole Shanahan lives in California.
Kennedy, who has said he will appeal the decision, has lived in New York for most of his adult life, but moved to Los Angeles in 2014 to be with his wife, the actress Cheryl Hines. He testified that his plan was always to return to New York when Hines retires from acting, according to an Associated Press (AP) report.
The independent candidate is registered to vote in New York, pays his taxes there and has a New York driver’s license, legal license and legal practice there. Kennedy’s registered New York address is for a rented bedroom at the house of a friend, which he only slept in once because of his campaign schedule, per AP.
A strategist for the Democratic National Committee, Lis Smith, said in a statement to The New York Times: “We’ll be assessing our options in other states based off of this ruling.”
Kennedy argues that the lawsuit is just an attempt from the Democrats to keep him off the ballot.
He said in a statement: “The Democrats are showing contempt for democracy. They aren’t confident they can win at the ballot box, so they are trying to stop voters from having a choice. We will appeal and we will win.”
“This case is an assault on New York voters who signed in record numbers to place me on their ballot,” he went on, “The DNC has become a party that uses lawfare in place of the democratic election process.”
Last Friday, Kennedy claimed his campaign had enough signatures to appear on the ballot in all 50 states.
He told Fox News: “Right now we have enough signatures to be on all 50 states. We’ve handed most of them in, some of the states are not yet certified, but we’re gonna be on the ballot in all 50 states, for sure.”
He went on: “A lot of the states don’t certify until mid-August. So, we’ve turned in our signatures, the signatures have been accepted, and they’re gonna be certified.”
