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Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at a voter rally at the St. Cecilia Music Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on February 10.
CNN
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Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has officially qualified to vote in Michigan, a key battleground state that will determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
The campaign announced Thursday that Kennedy and running mate Nicole Shanahan were nominated by the Natural Law Party, a small party with voting rights in the state. Michigan Natural Law Party Chairman Doug Dern told CNN that the party nominated Kennedy at its convention on Wednesday. The Michigan Secretary of State’s Office confirmed to CNN that the party’s nomination has been approved and Kennedy will appear on the state’s ballot.
Kennedy’s presence on Michigan’s ballot reflects the electoral dynamics of a highly contested state between President Joe Biden, who won the state in 2020, and former President Donald Trump, who won the state in 2016. may change. Both 2020 and 2016 were decided by less than 1% of the vote.
A Wall Street Journal poll released earlier this month found that in a virtual poll of six candidates, Kennedy had a 12% approval rating among Michigan voters, trailing Trump. 39%, lower than Biden’s 37%. In a hypothetical head-to-head matchup between Trump and Biden, Trump received 48% support from Michigan voters, compared to 45% for Biden.
Michigan has supported Democratic candidates in every presidential election since 1992, except for Trump’s narrow 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton by fewer than 11,000 votes in the state. I’ve been doing it. In the same election, Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein received a combined total of more than 220,000 votes in Michigan.
The 2016 results in states such as Michigan are part of the reason why Democrats and Biden allies are so fiercely opposed to Kennedy, the most likely third-party candidate in the race. The Democratic National Committee has put up billboard ads outside Kennedy events across the country, promoting Kennedy and Trump through donations to Kennedy’s super PAC from Timothy Mellon, a major Republican donor who also donates to pro-Trump groups. trying to connect. Some of the DNC’s first ads attacking Kennedy appeared on billboards outside a Kennedy campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in February.
Michigan may be one of the states vulnerable to blowback against Biden, as it has a significant number of pro-Palestinian voters who protested his response to Israel’s military operation in Gaza. A grassroots movement led by Arab and Muslim Americans in Michigan garnered enough support in the state’s Democratic primary last month, winning more than 100,000 votes in the “non-committal” voting field. .
Michigan is the second state in which Mr. Kennedy is officially eligible to vote. He became eligible to vote in Utah earlier this year, and his campaign announced it had collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot in New Hampshire, Hawaii, Nebraska, Idaho, North Carolina, Iowa and Nevada.
American Values 2024, a super PAC supporting Kennedy’s candidacy for president, announced that it had collected enough signatures to put Kennedy on the ballot in four states, including Michigan. The PAC’s signature-gathering efforts are the subject of a complaint filed by the Democratic National Committee with the Federal Election Commission, alleging that the PAC is illegally collaborating with the Kennedy campaign. PAC suspended its signature campaign in March.
This article has been updated with additional reporting.
