Featured on the Portland Press Herald: I’m independent-minded and feisty like a lot of Mainers, and I was curious: What has young people so jazzed up about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s candidacy for president? So I read or listened to several books, including “American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family” and “The Real RFK Jr.: Trials of a Truth Warrior.” I watched or listened to dozens of interviews from independent stations and podcasts; watched the June town hall broadcast from New Hampshire; and heard other speeches. I’m a busy mom — often listening while doing the dishes — but something had me going back for more. Ultimately, I drove to Portland with my 10-year-old daughter to meet the man. What I encountered was a person from a beloved and powerful family who used their influence for the good of those who were struggling. This theme, along with honesty based on deep inquiry, integrity and never giving up on something worthwhile, runs deep in RFK Jr. He’s spent 40 years as an environmental lawyer successfully litigating against powerful companies, some of whom knowingly polluted the environment and ruined the livelihoods of average Americans. I have sometimes felt powerless in important situations, and I appreciate that someone would spend their life giving voice to the voiceless. The Kennedy value system for raising children is a hoot. Here’s a sample: Read about the saints daily to inspire selflessness; share Greek myths to inspire heroism; tell of the American Revolution so children will know to defend rights gained through so much bloodshed; push them physically so they can withstand the many difficulties in life; encourage heated nightly debate on important issues so they learn to disagree and still love and respect the validity of the other person; take them to wild places to experience a sense of spirituality. I see these effects in the RFK Jr. I’m beginning to know and admire. Read the full opinion here. If you resonate with this message please subscribe to our newsletter to learn more.

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Omaha World-Herald reports: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. brought his independent presidential campaign to Lincoln Tuesday with a call for people to join him in taking back the country. Kennedy spoke to more than 600 people who turned out for a rally at the Royal Grove bar, where they got to take selfies, buy merchandise and sign petitions to get him on the Nebraska ballot. Michael Marquis of Lincoln said he had seen some of Kennedy’s podcasts and likes the idea of having a third option for president. He said he especially liked Kennedy’s views about increasing equity for the younger generation and about addressing the housing crisis. “Normally, independent candidates pay companies millions of dollars to gather signatures,” Kennedy said. “We’re taking a different route that starts with our thousands of volunteers in every state.” On Tuesday, he talked about the control that a few large corporations exert over the nation’s economy and the government agencies that are supposed to be keeping Americans safe. He also talked about the prevalence of chronic diseases among young people, which he said exploded after 1989. Kennedy talked as well about the strategy of those in power to stay in power by “sowing division and vitriol and anger among us.” “What I promise to do is to dim that anger and find the issues, the values we have in common,” he said, asserting that the things that unite the country are much broader than the sliver of culture war issues that divide people. Read the full article here. If you resonate with this message please subscribe to our newsletter to learn more.

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Channel 8 KLKN-TV reports: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. visited Lincoln Tuesday night at The Royal Grove on his presidential campaign. A crowd of hundreds gathered to hear him speak. To get on Nebraska’s general election ballot, he must get 2,500 signatures from registered voters. Some believe he could pose a threat to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. If you resonate with this message please subscribe to our newsletter to learn more.

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The Daily Express US reports: A leading political expert in the US has warned that there will be an attempt by the Democrats to stop Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. from being on the ballots in their stronghold states because they fear he will split their vote. With RFK set to run as an independent candidate in the Presidential election next year, polling by Washington DC-based think tank Democracy Institute has revealed he is gaining in support and taking votes away from the Democrats. Patrick Basham, director of the Democracy Institute, believes a plan is already in place to try to stop Kennedy, who is the latest candidate from America's most famous political family, from being on the ballot in states where Democrats are Governors. Read the full article here. If you resonate with this message please subscribe to our newsletter to learn more.

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NewsNation reports: American Values 2024, a super PAC supporting third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said Tuesday it plans to spend up to $15 million getting him on the ballot in 10 states important to winning the 2024 race. While Kennedy is believed to have cross-party appeal, has raised millions of dollars and is polling at levels not seen by a third-party candidate since the early 1990s, none of it matters if he can’t get on state ballots, a cumbersome process deliberately made difficult by the Republican and Democratic parties over the years. “The ballot access restrictions in this country are specifically designed by the two-party system leaders to keep out independent candidates,” said RFK Jr. campaign director Amaryllis Kennedy. “These are the leaders who have utterly failed the American people for the last quarter-century and they want to be able to tell you cycle after cycle, ‘You’ve just got a pick from the lesser of two evils.’ We just learned that we won our constitutional challenge against the state of Utah to delay the submission date for our signatures.” Read the full article here. If you resonate with this message please subscribe to our newsletter to learn more.

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Axios reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is showing potential for the most formidable independent presidential bid in a generation, but now the hard part begins. What's happening: Kennedy has yet to get his name on the ballot in any general election state. The super PAC backing Kennedy's bid announced this week that it plans to spend up to $15 million on the effort. Their target states for the eight-figure effort are Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, New York and Texas. "We have chosen to pursue these critical states, some of them battlegrounds, due to the complexity of the state election codes and the volume of signatures necessary to achieve ballot access," said Deirdre Golffard, the special counsel of ballot access for the American Values 2024 super PAC. State of play: Kennedy's team has volunteers in place across the country to help gather signatures for the ballot. "We'll be doing rallies in pretty much every state," Spear said. "Of course [the rallies are] to encourage signature gathering, but they're also for Mr. Kennedy to meet with the voters, hear their concerns and for him to share his policies." Read the full article here. If you resonate with this message please subscribe to our newsletter to learn more.

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CNN reports: Utah election officials have agreed to temporarily delay the enforcement of its January 8 ballot access filing deadline for independent candidates after Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s presidential campaign sued the officials to permanently move the deadline to August. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said in a court filing on Wednesday that Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and state Director of Elections Ryan Cowley have agreed to not enforce the deadline to apply for ballot access for independent candidates until March 5, allowing Kennedy’s campaign an additional two months to gather signatures. For Kennedy – who ended his Democratic primary challenge to President Joe Biden in October in favor of an independent presidential bid – Utah provides the first test of his campaign’s ability to meet the logistical and financial hurdles of its stated goal of appearing on the ballot in all 50 states. Utah’s deadline is the earliest in the country for unaffiliated candidates, and missing the deadline could take Kennedy out of the running for Utah’s six electoral votes. “I am pleased Lt. Governor Henderson had the courage to correct the wrong committed by the state legislature in their intentional assault on the constitutional right of Utah voters to cast their vote for Mr. Kennedy in 2024,” Rossi said in a statement released by the campaign. Read the full article here. If you resonate with this message please subscribe to our newsletter to learn more.

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NewsNation reports: Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is busy running his own campaign, but he’s kept an eye on the four Republican primary debates. He says it appears the candidates are being told vitriol is a winning strategy. “We didn’t hear any solutions except for blowing up people and you know, having more wars and having ‘us against them,'” Kennedy said Thursday on “CUOMO.” Sparks flew at the fourth GOP debate hosted by NewsNation on Wednesday night, which saw former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie call Vivek Ramaswamy an “obnoxious blowhard.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley were also on the stage and engaged in several testy exchanges, each attacking the other’s record as leaders of their respective state. As for substantive discussion, Kennedy says he saw little of it. “An entire generation of kids has lost faith in our country and lost hope for their own futures, the only generation in American history that believes that they’re going to do worse than their parents,” Kennedy said, “and I’d like to see debates with Republicans and Democrats that address that issue.” Read the full article here. If you resonate with this message please subscribe to our newsletter to learn more.

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The Nebraska Examiner reports: Third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. plans a stop next week in the state where his father campaigned by train in 1968, weeks before winning Nebraska’s Democratic primary. But Junior isn’t visiting Nebraska to run as a Democrat like dad, and some analysts say his effort to get onto the 2024 general election ballot could risk Democratic President Joe Biden’s re-election bid.  Swing state polling is unclear about who would be hurt more by Kennedy reaching the ballot. National political observers say Biden has more to lose than former President Donald Trump, should he become the Republican nominee. Kennedy has scheduled a rally at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Royal Grove in Lincoln, 340 W. Cornhusker Hwy. Lincoln was one of the few Nebraska cities his father’s whistle-stop tour missed in 1968. That tour started in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and ended in Omaha. It stopped in Fremont, Schuyler, Columbus, Grand Island, Kearney, Lexington, North Platte, Ogallala, Sidney and Kimball. He separately visited Chadron and later stopped in Hastings. Many members of Kennedy’s own family publicly oppose his bid. Several longtime supporters have criticized his vocal opposition to some vaccines and his embrace of conspiracy theories. Some on the right view him as a way to help a Republican presidential candidate win. Read the full article here. If you resonate with this message please subscribe to our newsletter to learn more.

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Fox 13 reports: On the heels of making a campaign stop in Salt Lake City, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is running for president as an independent candidate, is suing Utah officials. The lawsuit names Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson and Ryan Cowley, the Director of Elections of the State of Utah, as defendants in the lawsuit. Court documents state an "unconstitutional early filing deadline" prevents ballot access for independent presidential candidates. In Utah, independent candidates must collect 1,000 valid signatures of qualified electors, with the certificate of nomination, between January 2 and 8. The lawsuit claims that by enforcing the rule, "immediate relief is necessary in order to prevent severe economic harm to Plaintiff RFK." "It directly impairs voters from casting meaningful votes in the general election," said Paul Rossi, a member of the legal counsel for Kennedy's campaign. "We’re challenging it so the voters of Utah, like every other state in the nation, they have a right to cast ballots for the candidate they might want to support." Read the full article here. If you resonate with this message please subscribe to our newsletter to learn more.

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KSL TV reports: Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has filed a federal lawsuit against Utah’s state officials, claiming they are limiting his presidential bid on Monday. According to the filed complaint, Kennedy Jr. is accusing Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and Ryan Cowley, Director of Elections of the State of Utah, of enforcing an “unconstitutional early deadline imposed only on unaffiliated independent candidates for the Office of President of the United States.” “Independent/unaffiliated candidates for the Office of President of the United States must collect and verify 1,000 petition signatures before they may file their ‘2024 Certificate of Nomination for Unaffiliated Candidate’… which must be filed between the dates of Jan. 2, 2024 and Jan. 8, 2024,” the complaint states. According to the complaint, Kennedy Jr.’s campaign must collect and file 1,000 valid petition signatures, which must be validated by election clerks and filed to the State of Utah before the deadline. “No state in the history of the United States has sought to impose such an early date to collect, validate and file ballot access petitions to secure ballot access for the general election to be held on the far-off date of Nov. 5, 2024,” the complaint states. The complaint alleges that the early deadline for Utah’s 2024 election is “a severe violation of rights guaranteed under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution for which the State of Utah has no compelling nor legitimate interest to enforce.” Read the full article here. If you resonate with this message please subscribe to our newsletter to learn more.

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New York Times reports: A super PAC backing the independent presidential candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is planning to spend $10 million to $15 million to get Mr. Kennedy on the ballot in 10 states, a substantial effort that, even if partly successful, could heighten Democratic concerns about his potential to play the role of spoiler in 2024. The states, which include several battlegrounds, are among the country’s most populous and carry, between them, 210 Electoral College votes — Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, New York and Texas. Mr. Kennedy’s campaign, as well as efforts from No Labels, the Green Party and other independent candidates, have worried President Biden’s campaign and its Democratic allies. They fear that such campaigns could siphon votes away from Mr. Biden and tilt the election toward his likely Republican opponent, former President Donald J. Trump. States make their own rules governing ballot access. Independent candidates must navigate a labyrinthine network governing signature collections and financial reporting requirements. The effort is time-consuming and expensive. Tony Lyons, the super PAC’s co-founder, said that the goal was to get Mr. Kennedy on the ballot in every state, but that the group was focusing on the 10 states where it expected the most difficulty, particularly in terms of expensive legal challenges. “That’s where we believe we can have the most impact,” he said. Read the full article here. If you resonate with this message please subscribe to our newsletter to learn more.

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