AUGUSTA, ME—AUGUST 16, 2024—The Kennedy campaign today announced a major set of ballot access legal victories, state certifications, and state signature sufficiency notices.

Independent Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. won legal challenges in New Jersey, North Carolina, and Maine, where he defeated the first attempt to have him removed from the ballot over frivolous allegations about his residency in New York.

Secretaries of state officially certified Kennedy’s ballot access in Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Maine. The campaign also received notice from three additional states that it has submitted enough valid signatures to gain ballot access in Arkansas, Wisconsin, and Washington. 

Maine

On Tuesday, the Kennedy campaign defeated a DNC challenge to Kennedy’s New York residence and signatures the campaign collected in Maine. The DNC-aligned super PAC Clear Choice Action filed the challenge last week and withdrew it this week. 

Maine law defines a candidate’s residency on ballot access petitions as the address where they are registered to vote. Kennedy is registered to vote at his New York residence, meaning his use of the address on Maine petitions is valid. The secretary of state’s office has affirmed Kennedy will be on the ballot.

New Jersey

Earlier this month, the Kennedy campaign defeated a Democratic Party challenge to Kennedy’s ballot access in New Jersey. The challenge alleged Kennedy was in violation of the state’s sore loser law, which prevents a candidate from officially seeking the nomination of a party and then switching to another ballot line. Administrative Law Judge Ernest Bongiovanni ruled Kennedy must remain on the ballot because he did not officially file to run in the New Jersey Democratic primary or any state Democratic primary across the country. 

North Carolina 

On Monday, Kennedy supporters with We The People North Carolina — the party that nominated Kennedy for president and Nicole Shanahan for vice president — defeated a DNC challenge to its ballot access. The Superior Court of Wake County ruled in favor of We The People. 

“We are pleased but not surprised by the court’s ruling,” said Lead Litigator and Election Law Specialist Oliver Hall. “There was no basis for the North Carolina Democratic Party’s claims and their lawsuit was a transparent attempt to suppress voter choice in the state by blocking a party from the ballot despite its full compliance with all applicable requirements. The court got it right.”

National Overview

As the Kennedy campaign racks up ballot access victories nationwide — submitting two, three, and even four times the number of signatures required to qualify in each state — the DNC is pouring millions into a lawfare campaign against Kennedy, resorting to frivolous and often comical legal efforts to stop voters from electing him as president. 

The campaign has won legal victories in Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Utah. It has defeated every legal challenge against it except for a partisan ruling in New York’s lower court this week, which it intends to overturn with an appeal that was filed Wednesday.

The campaign’s historic ballot access operation has surpassed all its milestones to ensure the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket is on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The ballot access operation is fully funded with more than $15 million raised.

The Kennedy-Shanahan campaign has collected more signatures than any presidential candidate in American history, collecting more than 1 million signatures. The campaign has now collected the signatures needed for ballot access in 46 states, totaling 506 electoral votes, 94% of the 538 total electoral votes nationwide.

The Kennedy-Shanahan ticket is officially on the ballot in 22 states — Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia.

The campaign has submitted its signatures in 18 states — Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C.

It has collected enough signatures for ballot access in 6 states — Alabama, Florida, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, and North Dakota.

Learn more at Kennedy24.com. Visit our press page here.

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