When former environmental lawyer and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his independent presidential campaign and backed former President Donald Trump, he proclaimed he would take himself off the ballot in every battleground state, to avoid stealing votes from Trump.
But it appears he can't do that in a majority of contests.
So far, according to analyst Adam Carlson, Kennedy cannot take himself off the ballot in Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin due to various state laws and passed deadlines.
The most recent of these developments came Tuesday, as the Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 5-1 that Kennedy could not be removed in that state.
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Per Semafor's Dave Weigel, the Trump campaign is particularly concerned about Kennedy's presence on the ballot in Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin, where the largest number of Kennedy voters rank Trump as their second choice; in Michigan, they appear to be split more evenly.
Some experts believe Kennedy was running to peel off votes from Democrats and help re-elect Trump. Some Republican megadonors appeared to think along those same lines; Tim Mellon, a GOP-aligned railroad magnate and one of the largest contributors of campaign money in the 2024 cycle, contributed millions of dollars to a super PAC backing Kennedy at the same time as he funded GOP candidates.
All of this comes as Kennedy grows even closer to the Trump campaign; the former president has added Kennedy to his presidential transition team and has toyed with the idea of giving him a cabinet position in his administration.
