‘Utah has once again shown it is the pioneer state,’ Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says about achieving ballot access in Utah
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Amid ongoing discussion about which candidates should and should not receive ballot access in states across the country, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a press conference in Salt Lake City on Wednesday.
Media and campaign volunteers gathered in a small room in Utah’s East Senate Building to listen to Kennedy explain how he achieved ballot access.
Beginning his remarks, Kennedy declared, “Utah has once again show that it is the pioneer state” as the Beehive State became the first state where Kennedy achieved ballot access.
To do so in Utah, candidates had to gather 1,000 signatures from registered voters and have the signatures verified by county election clerks. They also have to pay a fee and submit a “2024 Certificate of Nomination for Unaffiliated Candidate” to finalize the process.
Kennedy filed a suit against Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson over the deadline to gain access, which was Jan. 8, 2024. After the suit was filed, Henderson announced that filings would be accepted through March 5, 2024. She said in a statement, “This decision has been made in the spirit of affording every reasonable opportunity for unaffiliated presidential candidates to participate in our general election.”
“I want to thank Lt. Gov. Henderson for cooperating and removing one of the unconstitutional barriers,” Kennedy said. “We were litigating this case at the same we were getting signatures.”
His campaign is laser-focused on securing ballot access across every state — a prospect that he said will cost around $15 million to achieve, Kennedy said.
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One of the issues Kennedy said his campaign has raised “is the undemocratic block that the major political parties have on this process.”
There are rules “in every state that are designed ... to make sure that there are no options for Americans outside of major political parties,” Kennedy said.
Pointing toward the disaffection many Americans have with the two parties at this current moment, Kennedy expressed his disagreement with these kinds of laws.
States have different laws when it comes to ballot access, Kennedy explained. A large part of his campaign team is dedicated to figuring out what is required in each state and mobilizing volunteers to collect signatures.
“In the end, we’re going to have an army in the field with very, very capable people,” he said.
Arizona, Missouri and Maryland are among the states Kennedy named where the campaign is actively trying to secure votes. One of the road blocks he is facing in some states is that he does not have a vice president candidate announced yet.
But, Kennedy said he has “been in talks with a number of individuals” for a vice president spot.
Kennedy also addressed the Colorado Supreme Court ruling that former President Donald Trump should be barred from the ballot on the grounds that he violated Section 3 of 14th Amendment, which reads:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
“We conclude that the foregoing evidence, the great bulk of which was undisputed at trial, established that President Trump engaged in insurrection,” the opinion states.
Maine also blocked Trump from the ballot. Kennedy was critical of both states for doing so.
“I’m not a fan of Donald Trump and that’s why I’m running against him,” Kennedy said. “But I’ve been outspoken about criticizing the Colorado decision and the Maine decision because we have a democracy in this country, you don’t have a banana republic — at least we’re not supposed to.”
Kennedy later continued, saying, “I believe that I can beat him in an election, that I can beat him in a debate. And I want to do that fair and square.”
Not only does blocking Trump from the ballot leave some people “feeling angry and frustrated,” he said, he thinks it “discredits” the Democratic Party.
“It makes President Trump into a mythological figure because people can see that this is not fair.”
