Quick Takes

After suspending his campaign, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed to run for president in Kentucky

By: - August 27, 2024 10:25 am

Former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gives remarks at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel on Aug. 23, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. Kennedy announced that he was suspending his presidential campaign and supporting the Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

Despite suspending his presidential campaign last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will appear on Kentucky ballots, according to Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams.?

Adams said in a Monday night post on X, formerly Twitter, that Kennedy, a third-party candidate, filed to run for president in Kentucky around 3:30 p.m. Monday.?

“Having just completed review of his submission of signatures, we are placing him on the ballot,” Adams wrote.?

Kennedy appeared on the secretary of state’s candidate filings website, along with running mate, Nicole Shanahan.?

Kennedy announced Friday that he was suspending his campaign and threw his support behind former Republican President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. He added that he is not terminating his campaign and planned to “remain on the ballot in most states.” Kennedy planned to remove his name from about 10 battleground states, but did not say which ones.?

At the time, Kennedy said he “cannot, in good conscience, ask my staff and volunteers to keep working their long hours, or ask my donors to keep giving when I cannot honestly tell them that I have a real path to the White House.”

Kennedy withdrew from Arizona and Texas, but it might be too late for him to withdraw from some states, such as Nevada and Wisconsin.

Kentucky has become a predictable red state in recent presidential elections. Trump won the state’s eight electoral votes in 2016 and 2020.?

Some polling suggests that Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump will have minimal effect on the election between Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.?

Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist, is part of the country’s most recognizable families in Democratic politics. He is the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy.?

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McKenna Horsley
McKenna Horsley

McKenna Horsley covers state politics for the Kentucky Lantern. She previously worked for newspapers in Huntington, West Virginia, and Frankfort, Kentucky. She is from northeastern Kentucky.

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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