WEST DES MOINES, Iowa—Robert F. Kennedy Jr. met the requirements to get on Iowa’s presidential general election ballot during a one-day convention on April 13.
Following the event, and moments after he posed for selfies with many of the 1,000-plus attendees, Mr. Kennedy told The Epoch Times that he would continue his campaign as an independent amid speculation that he would seek the Libertarian Party’s nomination.
“It will become obvious quickly we will get ballot access,” Mr. Kennedy replied when asked whether he is still talking to the Libertarian Party about its nomination.
His campaign confirmed in a statement that he has “many areas of alignment” with the Libertarian Party but “is not contemplating joining the Libertarian ticket.”
Since announcing his candidacy as an independent in October 2023, Mr. Kennedy has focused on gaining ballot access in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
He has said multiple times that he will accomplish that feat, estimating that the effort will cost $15 million to $18 million.
Requirements for securing a ballot spot differ by state, as do deadlines. Multiple states have summer deadlines.
Some states have varying requirements about the number of signees in different parts of their state.
Mr. Kennedy said he expects continued legal challenges from Democrats and Republicans intent on keeping him off the ballot.
In West Des Moines on April 13, he said he would not run as a Libertarian because his campaign “will get on the ballot ourselves.”
Mr. Kennedy told The Epoch Times that he would gain ballot access in “two to three states every week” and that he would be on the ballot in “every state” by the end of July.
He is officially on the ballot in Utah, and the campaign has said it has collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot in Hawaii, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and now Iowa.
Under Iowa law, independent presidential candidates can bypass the state’s requirement of collecting 3,500 signatures to get on the ballot by having a convention and identifying 500 eligible “electors” representing at least 25 counties.
At the convention, Mr. Kennedy’s campaign said that it had identified 686 credentialed delegates in Iowa from more than 35 counties. The results must be certified by the Iowa secretary of state.
Mr. Kennedy has faced a challenging road to the White House since announcing his candidacy in April 2023. Initially, he entered the race to compete against President Joe Biden for the Democratic Party nomination.
Standing in front of the National Constitution Center with the words “We the People” etched into the building by his side, Mr. Kennedy announced in October 2023 in Philadelphia that he would run for president as an independent and leave the Democratic primary, which he said was “rigged” by the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
He has faced ongoing scrutiny on multiple fronts in his quest for ballot access.
Last month, the DNC announced the creation of a team to counter third-party and independent presidential candidates.
It hired Lis Smith, a veteran Democrat strategist who managed Pete Buttigieg’s unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, to spearhead an aggressive communications plan to combat Mr. Kennedy, independent Cornel West, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
President Biden’s supporters and the DNC accuse Mr. Kennedy of being propped up by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
At a news conference following the West Des Moines event, a Canadian journalist said to Mr. Kennedy that “it’s impossible to become president” without being a Democrat or a Republican and asked, “What is it you’re trying to accomplish?”
Mr. Kennedy pointedly responded, “I disagree with you” before looking to another reporter and saying, “Next.”
In a video posted to Truth Social last week, President Trump said: “RFK Jr. is, as you know, the most radical left candidate in the race. He’s more so than the Green Party. He’s more so than even crooked Joe Biden. But he’s got some nice things about him. I happen to like him.”
President Trump stated that Mr. Kennedy would take votes from President Biden.
“He should because he’s actually better than Biden,” he added.
“If I were a Democrat, I’d vote for RFK Jr. every single time over Biden, because he’s frankly more in line with Democrats.”
Iowa Republican Party Chair Jeff Kaufmann said in a statement that Mr. Kennedy “is a distraction” and “he’s peddling his toxic conspiracy theories instead of speaking to the problems facing Americans caused by the Biden administration.”
During his speech at the West Des Moines rally, though, Mr. Kennedy outlined his platform, which includes addressing corporate capture of government agencies, ending what he calls the chronic disease epidemic, resolving “forever wars,” restoring the middle class, significantly reducing the national debt, making homes more affordable, and preserving constitutional rights.
According to a Fox News poll from March 22 to March 25, Mr. Kennedy has a 47 percent favorability rating compared with President Trump, at 45 percent, and President Biden, at 39 percent.
Mr. Kennedy said he believes that he has a path to victory, pointing to his support from voters younger than 35 and independent voters.
“Democrats are telling us to be scared if President Trump gets elected because it will be the end of democracy. Republicans are trying to tell us to be terrified if President Biden gets elected because it’s gonna be the end of the Republic,” he said.
Mr. Kennedy said that neither President Biden nor President Trump has a solution for “our $34 trillion deficit.”
“They can’t solve it because they are the ones who created it,” he said.
Mr. Kennedy has called ballot access laws for independent and third-party candidates “among the worst forms of voter suppression in America today” and said that state officials should work together to “streamline and standardize ballot access procedures.”
Ballot access restrictions “artificially prop up the two-party duopoly,” he said, noting that a Gallup poll conducted in September 2023 showed that 63 percent of U.S. adults agree that “the Republican and Democratic parties do such a poor job of representing the American people that another choice is needed.”
Mr. Kennedy said: “Biden is gonna have $3 billion, probably double of any campaign in history, but he’s not gonna use that money to amplify his voice or to tell the American public why we should vote for him. He’s going to use the great bulk of that money to make sure that his opponents cannot compete against him.”
In January, Mr. Kennedy’s campaign filed paperwork in six states to create its own political party.
The move was made to get his name on the ballot in those states that require fewer voter signatures for candidates affiliated with a party than for unaffiliated candidates.
Filing for political party status in the six states reduced the number of signatures required for Mr. Kennedy to gain ballot access by about 330,000, according to a statement from his campaign.
Iowa is the most recent addition to Mr. Kennedy’s We the People party.
To get on the ballots of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Mr. Kennedy noted, his campaign must collect about 1 million valid pen-and-paper signatures through petitions across the country.
“Effectively, this means closer to 1.5 million to ensure that enough are valid,” he said.
When he announced that he would run as an independent in October 2023, Mr. Kennedy said he was “declaring independence” from the Democratic party and all political parties.
“There have been independent candidates in the past. This time, it will be different. This time, the independent will win,” he said.
As the calendar turned to a new year, speculation mounted that Mr. Kennedy could pursue the Libertarian Party nomination because that party was on the ballot in all 50 states in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.
In January, he said that he was talking to the Libertarian Party and felt “very comfortable” with most of the party’s values. Mr. Kennedy noted that he was talking to Libertarian groups, and he was a keynote speaker at the Libertarian Party of California’s annual convention earlier this year.
Angela McArdle, chair of the Libertarian National Committee, met with Mr. Kennedy before he decided to run as an independent.
Running Mate Choice Concerns Libertarians
Last month, Mr. Kennedy named Silicon Valley lawyer, investor, and philanthropist Nicole Shanahan as his running mate. After the announcement, Ms. McArdle said a lot of libertarians “are confused” by Mr. Kennedy’s choice at a time when he’s trying to convince the party to let him be their presidential candidate.“I’m sure she’s a lovely person, but she doesn’t necessarily fit into alignment with any of our views,” Ms. McArdle said.
Ms. Shanahan’s previous financial backing for President Biden, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, among other Democrats, created concern among some in the Libertarian party, Ms. McArdle said.
She told Mr. Kennedy that in order to win the Libertarian Party nomination, he must gain support from registered party delegates for consideration at the party’s national convention in May.
Mr. Kennedy’s choice of Ms. Shanahan as his vice president wouldn’t disqualify him as a contender in the party nominating process, but it “doesn’t right out of the gate seem like it’s going to do a lot to help,” Ms. McArdle said.
Before Mr. Kennedy named Ms. Shanahan as his running mate, his campaign was actively gathering signatures in 16 states.
Multiple states require that independent and third-party candidates name a vice president before collecting signatures.
Mr. Kennedy’s announcement of Ms. Shanahan opened the signature-collection process in Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, and Virginia.
