Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has qualified for California’s presidential ballot. File Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI
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April 30 (UPI) — Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has qualified for the ballot in California, his campaign said.
In a statement, his campaign said Monday that Kennedy and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, had officially made it onto the ballot for the state with the most electoral college votes.
The announcement comes after the American Independent Party of California officially nominated him for president over the weekend and filed the paperwork with the Office of the California Secretary of State.
The AIP was founded as a far-right political party in 1967 that nominated pro-segregationist former Alabama Gov. George Wallace for president.
In a nearly six-minute video, Kennedy — an environment lawyer known being an anti-vaccine proponent — said the party has long shedded its hateful past and “has been reborn as a party that represents not bigotry and hatred but rather compassion and unity and idealism and common sense.”
“When they learned about my candidacy, they had just drafted a new charter for their reborn party where they could use their battle line for good, for helping independent candidates to unite America without being blocked by the two-party duopoly,” he said.
Kennedy continued that the party was “so impressed” with his campaign and its support base that it approached him and offered its spot on the California ballot.
“I see this story as a symbol of America’s homecoming to an authentic populism of unity, peace and prosperity, an evolution beyond the divisive years of President [Donald] Trump and a return to the Kennedy vision — a country where the government serves the people, where the people serve one another and where our nation serves its idealist mission as an exemplary nation, an example of democracy around the globe,” he said.
Along with California, the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket is officially on three states’ ballots, including Utah and Michigan. His campaign said it has collected enough signatures for access to ballots in the seven states of New Hampshire, Nevada, Hawaii, North Carolina, Idaho, Nebraska and Iowa.
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This story was originally published April 30, 2024, 2:21 AM.