Devendra Kumar
American Values 2024, a fundraising Super PAC supporting third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., plans to spend up to $15 million to help him get on the ballot in 10 key states. Without access to these ballots, Kennedy’s chances of winning are severely diminished, despite his cross-party appeal and strong opinion poll numbers not seen by a third-party candidate in decades.
To achieve ballot access, AV24 will focus on collecting signatures by hand in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, New York, and Texas. These states represent approximately half of the signatures needed nationwide for Kennedy to make the ballot in November. The organization is on track to raise nearly $30 million, with millions coming from a former Donald Trump donor, Timothy Mellon.
According to Deirdre Golffard, who advises AV24, the Super PAC has chosen these critical states due to the complexity of their election codes and the large number of signatures required for ballot access. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist, could potentially siphon off a significant number of votes from Democratic nominee Joe Biden and Republican nominee Donald Trump, polls suggest he might take as much as one in seven votes from either candidate.
Kennedy’s campaign is seen as having cross-party appeal, and he has raised millions of dollars to date. However, until he can secure ballot access in critical states, his chances of success remain uncertain. AV24’s efforts will be crucial in helping him achieve this goal and potentially altering the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.