Former Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. won court victories Friday to have his name scrubbed off the ballot in two key swing states: North Carolina and Michigan. COURTS ACT ON FRIDAY Lawsuits called the moves last-ditch efforts by Kennedy’s campaign, the Associated Press reported, ahead of when election officials were set to finalize absentee ballots.
Not to be ignored, however, is that Kennedy dropped out of his grass-roots presidential campaign in August after his poll numbers had fallen to 5 percent. His name has been removed from ballots in three other battleground states: Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. Those moves reverse months of work by his staff to get his name on the ballots in those battleground venues.
RFK Jr. Removes
Kennedy was an environmental lawyer, a politician, and a Democratic nomination candidate who campaigned on his credentials as an environmentalist. Recent personal and political crises had forced him, however, to withdraw his candidacies in several swing states, which made impossible his candidacy to proceed further. Courts agreed, ruling unusually on the facts of his withdrawal.
Kennedy’s decision to retreat saw mixed reviews from other quarters because that was a very bold step to gather support in the form of candidates from others for some, but marked a huge shift in the election landscape broadly for others. His stepping out of crucial swing states, Pennsylvania and Michigan, both of which fall under determining factors of a president, may well prove to be a very critical factor in the 2024 election campaign.
Political science professor Dr. Emily Carter said that Kennedy’s withdrawal is going to flip this far in battleground states. “With his withdrawal, there are new avenues for the other candidates. It changes the strategy for both parties in states that are key in winning the election.”.
While reasons for such a decision by Kennedy are still vague, it does raise some question regarding his future political aspirations. This notwithstanding, however much this politician remains one of the major players in environmental and political circles, the removal of his name from such ballots means that there could be a change in what he is focused on.
No blank on the ballot in Pennsylvania and Michigan means that their non-votes affect only the voters themselves, who will be voting for fewer candidates. It will be interesting to see how campaigns make tactical adjustments to remain competitive if these conditions come to fruition over the next two weeks.
In short, therefore, RFK Jr.’s withdrawal of his name from the ballot in those critical states injects a new element into the 2024 election. How this will play in shaping the contours of that race is impossible to know, but in itself the move already forms an important development.
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