Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has reached the minimum threshold — 1,000 signatures — to qualify for placement on the presidential ballot in Utah as an independent candidate, the first state where the upstart populist has qualified.
Kennedy has campaigned across the U.S. with the hopes of gathering enough signatures across states to appear on state ballots as an independent candidate. As each state sets its own requirements, and the costs for collecting signatures and filing across states can be prohibitive for candidates without party backing, it is unlikely that Kennedy will qualify for candidacy in every state.
Last month, American Values 2024, a super PAC supporting the third-party candidate, announced a plan to spend nearly $15 million to get Kennedy on the ballot in ten states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, New York and Texas. All are important to winning the 2024 race.
Kennedy hails from a Democratic dynasty, the son of former senator and U.S. attorney general Robert F. Kennedy and a nephew of President John F. Kennedy. Formerly an environmental activist, he gained political prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic by questioning his party’s position on vaccines and accusing left-leaning outlets of spreading misinformation. He officially left the Democratic Party last year, becoming an Independent candidate.
The deadline to file is the day of Utah’s primary elections, March 5.
The state’s original filing deadline was January 8, but Kennedy’s campaign sued the state over the early filing due date, saying it was “unconstitutionally” restrictive. In response, the state last month moved the deadline from January 8 to the current date of March 5, allowing independent candidates more time to meet the threshold.
With a background as an environmental lawyer and a reputation as a COVID-19 vaccine skeptic, Kennedy performs best among independents and younger voters.
According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, Kennedy performs better than Biden and Trump among independents. Kennedy received 36 percent of independent votes, Biden 32 percent, and Trump 26 percent. Among voters ages 18-34, Kennedy beats Trump and Biden with 40 percent of the vote compared to Biden’s 36 percent and Trump’s 21 percent.
Kennedy is set to host a press conference later today in the Utah State Capitol to formally announce his ballot status in state. Utah is the first state where his campaign has submitted signatures.
On Tuesday, Kennedy’s campaign announced that prominent vaccine skeptic, Del Bigtree would be joining the team as communications director. Bigtree has built a career off of vaccine criticism. He helped produce the documentary Vaxxed: From Cover Up To Catastrophe in 2016, which propagated the disproven theory that the MMR vaccine causes autism.
In 2016 Bigtree founded Informed Consent Action Network, a group committed to fighting vaccine mandates. In 2019, Bigtree was criticized for adopting the yellow Star of David badge — those forcibly worn by Jews under Nazi rule — as a symbol of government persecution against anti-vaxxers. Bigtree donned the symbol while speaking about a Hasidic community in New York state, where many parents refused to vaccinate their children, resulting in a measles outbreak.
Bigtree published a letter regarding his new position as Kennedy’s communications director, which harps against the “dark forces of medical tyranny” and praises Kennedy as the candidate committed “to stopping the pharmaceutical industry’s propaganda.”
In the letter, Bigtree describes his path to becoming a leading vaccine critic: “As an unvaccinated, homeschooled child, the only doctor I ever saw was a chiropractor. Then, when the life-changing opportunity came to produce the film Vaxxed: From Cover Up To Catastrophe, it was chiropractors and alternative medicine practitioners who stepped up, when no one else would, to fund our film.”
“From the moment John D. Rockefeller realized he could seize control of humanity through the regulation of medicine, chiropractic and the collection of natural healing modalities have been balancing on the precipice of extinction. But even in the face of persecution, healing arts including, chiropractic, homeopathy and ayurveda never wavered; their independent spirit stood as a beacon of light for humanity, teaching us that our body can often heal itself without drugs, surgeries, and costly interventions.”
Bigtree praises Robert (“Bobby”) F. Kennedy Jr. for his steadfast, beliefs. “Just like many of the brave chiropractors and natural healers in history, Bobby has even gone to jail for his convictions.”
The letter closes with a reminder that readers must make a minimum donation of $1000 to become members of Bigtree’s “Health Think Tank.”