Judge Rules RFK Jr. Will Remain on Presidential Ballot in Michigan

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces he is suspending his presidential campaign at a news conference in Phoenix, on Aug. 23, 2024. Darryl Webb/AP Photo

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. must remain on the November ballot in the battleground state of Michigan, despite suspending his campaign and endorsing former President Donald Trump, a state judge ruled on Sept. 3.

Kennedy qualified for Michigan’s Nov. 5 general election ballot in April after accepting a nomination from the Natural Law Party.

He announced on Aug. 23 that he was suspending his campaign and throwing his support behind Trump.

At the time, Kennedy said a vote for him in about 10 battleground states would be a spoiler that could potentially draw votes away from Trump. He said that therefore, he would seek to have his name removed while urging voters not to vote for him in those key states. Kennedy added that he will remain on the ballot in most of the states for which he has qualified as he is unlikely to make a difference between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

In a four-page opinion and order, Michigan Court of Claims Judge Christopher P. Yates upheld Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s rejection of Kennedy’s request to withdraw from the ballot, finding that she acted within the law.

“Elections are not just games, and the Secretary of State (SOS) is not obligated to honor the whims of candidates for public office,” Yates wrote.

Shortly after his August announcement, Kennedy sought to have his name removed from the ballots in several states, including Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, where the race could be close. Trump narrowly won Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016 but lost both states to President Joe Biden in 2020.

While officials in states such as Florida and Ohio approved Kennedy’s request, others turned it down.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 5–1 on Aug. 27 to keep Kennedy’s name on the ballot in the state, citing state law that says that once a candidate has filed for office, he or she must remain on the ballot unless he or she dies.

Kennedy Says Election ‘Could Be Drastically Changed’

Benson’s office also said late last month that it would not remove Kennedy’s name from the ballot because state law says that minor party candidates nominated at a state convention cannot withdraw.

That prompted Kennedy to file a lawsuit in Michigan’s Court of Claims against Benson, in which he argued that the election “could be drastically changed, and the electorate’s votes diminished and rendered invalid, if the Michigan Bureau of Elections places a name on a ballot for an individual that withdrew as a candidate.”

In his opinion, Yates said Kennedy signed a withdrawal notice and submitted it to Benson’s office on Aug. 23 to remove his name from the November ballot.

A staff member responded on Aug. 26 that the filing could not be accepted. An email debate between the campaign and Benson’s office ensued, and Kennedy filed a lawsuit on Aug. 30, Yates said in his opinion.

“Permitting a candidate to unilaterally withdraw after the August primary election date leaves the party without a candidate on the general-election ballot, so the plaintiff’s request to withdraw at this late date is just a self-serving act that would cause harm to the party that nominated him by leaving the party with no candidate at the top of the ticket,” the judge wrote.

In a post on social media platform X after the ruling, Benson said that under state law, candidates who are nominated and accept a minor party’s nomination “shall not be permitted to withdraw.”

The ruling comes after the North Carolina State Board of Elections last month rejected a similar request by Kennedy, citing the impracticality of having to reprint ballots by the state’s absentee voting deadline in eight days.

He has since filed a lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court challenging that decision. The Epoch Times has reached out to Kennedy’s lawyers for comment.

Zachary Stieber and The Associated Press contributed to this report.