R.F.K. Jr.’s Battle to Get on the Ballot

[0] From New York Times, I'm Michael Bobarrow.

[1] This is the Daily.

[2] Today.

[3] As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tries to get on the presidential ballot in all 50 states, he's confronting fierce resistance from his rivals.

[4] My colleague, Rebecca Davis -O -Brien, has been reporting on the high -stakes battle, playing out behind the scenes.

[5] It's Monday, May 6th.

[6] when we last spoke with you, which was in the fall, about what's really become your beat these days, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign, he had just made this very important decision to drop out of the Democratic primary, which he decided he couldn't win and run as an independent, but very much unresolved at that moment was whether as an independent candidate without the infrastructure of a major party, he could really mount a serious campaign.

[7] So what has happened since then?

[8] Right.

[9] So you might remember that when, when Kennedy began his campaign.

[10] I've come here today to announce my candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

[11] Back in April of 2023, he was really sort of a protest candidate.

[12] They close every business in this country for a year.

[13] Who's still really within the Democratic Party, but was pointing out as he had been during the pandemic, some of the problems with the pandemic response.

[14] And as we all now recognize, the COVID vaccines were new.

[15] neither safe nor effective.

[16] His skepticism of the COVID vaccine, his skepticism about childhood vaccination schedules.

[17] I can make the argument that President Biden is a much worse threat to democracy.

[18] His dissatisfaction with how President Biden had done his job, but it was really more of a niche audience.

[19] And when he left the Democratic Party and decided to run as an independent in October, he had to create a bigger audience for himself, a bigger platform, and stake out kind of a broader claim on the American electorate.

[20] And how did he do that?

[21] Well, you could hear it immediately in his speech back in October.

[22] I'm here to declare myself an independent candidate.

[23] When he was saying, I declare my independence, I hope to be at the forefront of a movement of the independent voter in the United States.

[24] This country is ready for a history -making change.

[25] The broad thrust of his argument is that the current political system dominated by the Republican, the Democratic Party, is no longer working for Americans.

[26] We've seen the Democratic, both the Democratic and the Republican Party turn against the values that they traditionally represented for our country.

[27] And so many of us feel homeless today.

[28] So he started that really in October, and since then, he's been taking this message of declaring independence for himself.

[29] and trying to scoop up, draw in as many voters from across the country, who also, like him, feel disaffected or not represented by either the Democratic or Republican parties that he sees as a kind of corrupt, stale duopoly.

[30] Let's go take back our country.

[31] God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

[32] Mm -hmm.

[33] So Kelly's very much taking this identity.

[34] it sounds like as an independent, which was in a way a political necessity, and he's turning it into an animating identity for his campaign and one that he hopes will be appealing to people across the political spectrum, not just independents, but Democrats and Republicans.

[35] That's exactly right.

[36] And part of that effort is staying in the news cycle and staying relevant.

[37] So we saw that earlier this year when there was this big $7 million ad paid for by a super PAC.

[38] supporting Kennedy.

[39] Seven million dollars.

[40] Seven million dollars.

[41] A huge expenditure on a single ad.

[42] A huge expenditure for a 30 -second spot during the Super Bowl.

[43] Mm -hmm.

[44] And what was interesting about this ad and caught a lot of viewers' attention...

[45] Do you want a man for president who sees it through and through...