Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has submitted the requisite number of signatures needed to qualify for the ballot in Utah, according to the Salt Lake County clerk’s office.
Kennedy will be on the 2024 presidential ballot in Utah as soon as he officially files because he turned in at least 1,000 signatures. A super PAC backing Kennedy’s campaign is spending millions of dollars to get him on the ballot in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, New York, and Texas.
“We will be announcing Jan. 3 our ballot access status in Utah at a press event in Salt Lake City,” Kennedy’s campaign press secretary Stefanie Spear told CBS News. The official paperwork to run as an independent needs to be submitted between January 2 and March 5.
Kennedy initially began running as a Democrat challenger to President Joe Biden but announced he was mounting an independent campaign in October. The independent candidate splits with most Democrats on the issues of vaccines and Ukraine, but still takes traditional Democratic stances on issues like abortion and affirmative action.
At his announcement, Kennedy suggested that the political divisions in the U.S. were “deliberately orchestrated” and declared himself as the solution for people who are “fed up with being fooled and [are] ready to take back power.”
Kennedy previously filed a lawsuit challenging Utah’s requirement to have the signatures submitted by January 8, saying that the requirements were not fair for independent candidates.
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“The current deadline is the earliest deadline ever sought to be imposed on independent presidential candidates in the modern era. No federal court has ever upheld a January deadline [for independent presidential candidates],” Kennedy’s lawsuit said.
Kennedy has also been pushing for the federal government to provide him with Secret Service protection, but was just rejected for a third time. He reportedly received a letter from U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas turning down his request.
“I have consulted with an advisory committee composed of the Speaker of the House, the House Minority Leader, the Senate Majority Leader, the Senate Minority Leader, and the Senate Sergeant at Arms. Based on the facts and the recommendation of the advisory committee, I have determined that Secret Service protection for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not warranted at this time,” Mayorkas wrote in the letter obtained by Deseret.