Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took a big step Monday toward becoming a 2024 election spoiler.
Kennedy has collected enough voter signatures in the key battleground state of North Carolina to qualify for the presidential election, his campaign said in a press release. With 16 electoral votes, it is the largest state in which Kennedy has secured a seat on the ballot.
The news comes as Democrats see a nightmare scenario in which Kennedy could change the outcome of the rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump by garnering just a few thousand votes in the closest battleground states. , perhaps marking the most significant development yet.
Given that Kennedy's campaign claims to have exceeded North Carolina's 23,000-signature requirement with a “60% buffer or more,” independent candidates will not be eligible unless a significant number of signatures are discarded by state election officials. will be guaranteed its place on the ballot.
“We have field teams, volunteers, legal teams, paid circulars, supporters and strategists ready to get the job done,” Kennedy campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Speer said in a statement.
Seven months after the general election, Kennedy has now collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot in just five states: Hawaii, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Utah.
However, of these five states, the narrowest margin in the 2020 presidential election was North Carolina, where Trump defeated Biden by 1.3 percentage points. The Biden campaign's biggest goal is to emerge as a Democratic candidate in 2024.
Although Mr. Kennedy's views appeal to different segments of the political spectrum, Democrats may be more concerned about his campaign than Republicans. They are making further efforts to at least neutralize him, and the Democratic Party has launched an aggressive campaign against him.
The ballot signature is the latest sign of President Kennedy's big moves ahead of the November election. Last week, he selected Silicon Valley lawyer and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan as his running mate. This is a requirement in several states for independent candidates to participate in presidential elections.