Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Monday that he has enough signatures to put Texas on the presidential ballot, further damaging the 2024 Biden-Trump showdown.
The independent candidate submitted 245,572 signatures to the Texas Secretary of State’s office, double the number of signatures he collected in just two months, his campaign said in a statement.
The Lone Star State has one of the most stringent voting requirements, requiring independent candidates to submit a petition that received at least 1% of the total votes cast in the previous presidential election.
RFK Jr.’s camp is likely securing more signatures than necessary in case of a challenge.
The Democrat-turned-independent is aiming to be on the ballot in all 50 states.
So far, his campaign claims to have officially counted votes in six states: Utah, Michigan, California, Delaware, Oklahoma, and Texas, as well as New Hampshire, Nevada, Hawaii, 14 states in total: North Carolina, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa and Ohio.
Kennedy, 70, has enjoyed higher approval ratings than any third-party candidate in decades, consistently in double digits.
a Marist poll conducted in March According to independent pollsters in Texas, Trump’s approval rating was 15%, compared to former President Donald Trump’s 48% and President Biden’s 36%.
According to RealClearPolitics, Kennedy received an average of 10.8% of the vote overall in the general election over Trump, Biden, independent candidate Cornel West and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
His relative popularity as a third-party candidate could be especially important in battleground states in November, as Biden and Trump are polling in a near-dead heat. . According to RealClearPolitics, Mr. Trump has an average of 41.5% overall, while Mr. Biden is 38.8%.
Former Republican Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.), who left the Republican Party, said over the weekend that Kennedy was in danger of stealing votes from Trump, and that the former president’s attacks on Kennedy were a cause for concern. He claimed that this was the reason he was there.
“RFK Jr. still thinks he can take more from the Republican Party, and I think that’s why Donald Trump is attacking him,” Jolie told MSNBC.
“He’s a MAGA crazy Republican,” Jolie said of Kennedy. “He’s a vaccine denier. He denies science, he flips on the abortion issue, and even his own running mate can’t keep up with the day-to-day developments on the most important issues heading into November. do not have.”
Last week, President Kennedy shocked vice presidential candidate Nicole Shanahan by saying that women should be able to have an abortion at any time during their pregnancy, later claiming that “that’s not Bobby’s position.” …He absolutely believes in restricting abortion. ”
In addition to RFK Jr.’s fight to get more votes, he is also trying to directly challenge Biden and Trump.
Kennedy asked Biden to jointly conduct a national poll in October, and they agreed that candidates who did not beat Trump would drop out.
He also challenged President Trump to a head-to-head debate at the Libertarian Convention in Washington, D.C., in late May.
Neither side has agreed to engage with Mr. Kennedy’s ideas.
