The state of Utah has officially welcomed the controversial candidate on their state ballot for the 2024 election, as of this week. As the BBC reported: “Elections officials in Utah said Mr Kennedy Jr had collected the 1,000 signatures necessary for ballot access.”
According to CNN: “Utah is the first state the Kennedy campaign has successfully filed to put his name on the ballot and has been a central focus of the campaign in recent weeks as it fleshes out its strategy to put Kennedy on the ballot in all 50 states and Washington, DC.”
Interestingly, reports also surfaced today that Kennedy has come out in protest of efforts to remove Trump from state ballots — notably Colorado and Maine, at this time.
The news outlet Politico quoted Kennedy today as saying, “Donald Trump has not been convicted of an insurrection. Maybe he did it but, you know, he hasn’t been charged with it. I don’t think it’s fair.”
At one point, Trump himself expressed measured support for Kennedy and there was loose talk of him running as Trump’s vice-president. Trump applauded Kennedy for being “smart” and having “common sense”.
Still an underdog at that time, at this point in the electoral cycle Kennedy is drawing criticism for pulling mounting support — almost equally — from both major parties.
His history of anti-vaccine activism has hovered over him like a dark cloud in many circles but he has not made that a major platform in his campaign — sans the promise to take on the FDA’s ties to pharmaceutical companies.
Most of Kennedy’s actual platforms are glossed over by mainstream news outlets, possibly because of the dichotomous implications they have on current debates for both sides.
An avid environmentalist and long time environmental lawyer, Kennedy and his son were both arrested for protesting the impacts of oil pipelines on Indigenous lands in February 2013.
However, Kennedy has also been calling for shutting down the border to Mexico — at least temporarily — to curb the fentanyl crisis.
A self-professed former heroin addict, one of Kennedy’s promises — which he perhaps expresses the most conviction on — is to radically expand access to free substance abuse treatment across the country.
RFK Jr also expresses a much more moderate view on abortion than much of the current Democratic Party.
While Kennedy is indeed gaining some momentum, especially in the age group of voters between 18 and 35, this demographic usually presents a disappointing turnout at the polls.
Among other aims at intelligence agencies, he has been a huge critic of the CIA, going as far as to blame them for the deaths of his father and uncle, recently.
And yet he did hire his daughter-in-law, an ex CIA operative, to manage his campaign after the exit of far-left Dennis Kucinich.
Kennedy’s Georgia campaign sent out emails today to rally support for a weekend long event happening in hopes of raising support from Gwinnett and Hall counties this month. The two-day event’s plan is to gather as many signatures in this area as possible.
The ballot access petition signing event will be taking place at Papa Jack’s Country Kitchen on Spout Springs Road in the City of Buford on Jan. 12 and Jan. 13 — from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. each day.
