RFK Jr. is suspending his presidential campaign: Why he might remain on Michigan's ballot

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Friday in Phoenix he is suspending his campaign for president and seeking the removal of his name from the ballot in "10 battleground states," having already started the process in Arizona and Pennsylvania.

In one prominent battleground state, Michigan, election law is currently set to keep Kennedy's name on the ballot this fall for voters, even though he is no longer seeking their votes. Kennedy, 70, obtained ballot access in Michigan after a little-known political party, the state's Natural Law Party, nominated him in April.

Because the deadline for minor political parties to hold state conventions has already passed (it coincided with the Aug. 6 Michigan primary election), the Natural Law Party of Michigan cannot nominate another presidential candidate. That means Kennedy is poised to appear as an option for voters alongside Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Republican nominee former President Donald Trump, and other candidates nominated by minor political parties in Michigan.

The Kennedy campaign reached out to the Michigan Bureau of Elections on Friday to have his name removed from the presidential ballot in Michigan's November election, according to the Michigan Secretary of State's Office.

The Associated Press reported Kennedy's campaign had withdrawn from the ballot in Arizona ahead of his Friday announcement, and filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania asking to be taken off the ballot there. At this point, it's unclear how Kennedy would have his name removed from the ballot in Michigan.

Kennedy stood little to no chance of obtaining enough votes to win the presidential election, and he had not received ballot access in every state by the time he ended his campaign. But in states like Michigan where the margin between Harris and Trump is expected to be close, a third-party candidate like Kennedy siphoning away votes from either of the major party nominees could swing the election.

Kennedy said he was suspending his campaign to avoid taking away votes from Trump, whom he endorsed Friday. During his announcement, he derided the Democratic National Committee and mainstream media, accusing them of not allowing a serious primary challenge to President Joe Biden's now-defunct reelection campaign.

Notably, in 2016, Trump's upset win in Michigan over then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was fueled in part by the success of third-party candidates; Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein combined to receive more than 223,000 votes in Michigan in 2016, when Trump won the state by about 10,700 votes on his way to the White House.

John Lindstrom, retired publisher of Gongwer Michigan and a longtime member of Michigan's political press corps, who is also a contributing columnist for the Free Press, said the race between Harris and Trump would have to be extremely close for Kennedy to have an impact in Michigan even though he's no longer actively seeking any votes. He noted in 2016, third-party candidates like Stein were actively campaigning up to Election Day, whereas Kennedy has ended his campaign.

"I think that Kennedy presents much less of a risk, but still a possible problem," Lindstrom said. He said Kennedy, who initially said he would seek the Democratic Party's nomination before running as an independent, could have presented more of an issue for Trump's campaign, saying Kennedy's anti-vaccine rhetoric could resonate more with voters on the right than it would on the left.

Kennedy's endorsement of Trump on Friday is likely an attempt to sway voters who had eschewed support of Trump in favor of Kennedy.

Kennedy also had greater potential to play spoiler in Michigan when Biden still appeared to be the likely Democratic nominee, Lindstrom added. During the state's presidential primary in February, over 13% of votes cast in the Democratic presidential primary were "uncommitted" after voters who disapproved of Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war organized to display their dissatisfaction. Lindstrom said it's possible that some uncommitted voters may have supported Kennedy instead of Harris, but Kennedy didn't appear to align with Democratic voters.

"In some respects, if he had been on the ticket, I think he would have been a greater danger to Trump," Lindstrom said.

Kennedy initially obtained ballot access in Michigan in April, when the Secretary of State's Office confirmed it had received the Natural Law Party's nomination and necessary documents from his campaign.

The New York Times reported then the party's nominating convention was a small meeting held in Hartland featuring the party's chair, Doug Dern, and its secretary Kathleen Oakford. Dern, an attorney from Hartland who has run for office in Michigan previously under the Natural Law Party's banner, could not be reached for comment Friday. When Kennedy's nomination by the party was announced in April, Dern called Kennedy "the most qualified candidate in the modern-day history of America."

In Michigan, five minor political parties have access to the state's presidential ballot: the Natural Law Party, the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, the U.S. Taxpayers Party and the Working Class Party. To get access to the ballot, a minor political party's primary candidate has to obtain at least 1% of all the votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election, and then to maintain access, the party's primary candidate must obtain at least 1% of all votes cast for the winning Secretary of State candidate in the most recent election for that position, Michigan law states.

Presidential candidates can also receive ballot access as an independent, but that process is much more arduous — state law requires independent candidates to obtain between 12,000 and 60,000 valid petition signatures, including at least 100 signatures each from half of Michigan's congressional districts.

Kennedy, 70, is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, a former U.S. Senator who was assassinated during his presidential campaign in 1968, and the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in Dallas in 1963.

In addition to being part of one of the country's most notable political families, Kennedy has made a name as an environmental attorney, and then later as an anti-vaccine activist.

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Contact Arpan Lobo: [email protected]

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why you might still see RFK Jr. on Michigan presidential ballots