Focus shifts to Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Texas.
Today, American Values 2024 (AV24), the super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s candidacy for president, has refined the states it will be funding for ballot access. The focus will now be on Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Texas.
“Based on our legal guidance, we believe we won’t be able to support ballot access in Indiana, Colorado and Nevada. The seven states we will initially focus on have a total of 183 electoral college votes and some of the highest populations in the country.” AV24 Co-Founder, Tony Lyons
Earlier this month, AV24 announced it will spend between $10M-$15M to pursue Ballot Access in pivotal states. That remains the case.
“We believe that Kennedy can get to 270 electoral votes and win the election in November of 2024. He has the best ideas, the best arguments, and the best policies and as we get closer to the election, we are confident that voters will abandon the uniparty and support Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s independent candidacy,” Lyons added.
Kennedy can win with as few as 15 electoral votes by blocking Trump and Biden from obtaining 270 electoral votes.
Kennedy is now the leading presidential candidate among Americans under 45 and Independent voters and is surging with Hispanic and black voters. According to a poll from Sienna College and The New York Times, Kennedy is at 32%, with Biden at 30% and Trump at 29% in six battleground states for all voters under 45. Per CNN’s polling expert Harry Enten, “A clear Trump polling lead became a jumbled mess with no clear favorite to win in the Electoral College thanks to Kennedy. Both Biden (34 percent) and Trump (36 percent) were south of 40 percent in an aggregate across the six states.” Recent polls from the New York Times and Quinnipiac University have shown RFK Jr with the highest third party support in decades, exceeding the 19 percent polling that Ross Perot garnered in 1992.
Even if Kennedy doesn’t get to 270 electoral votes, he can win with as few as 15 electoral votes by blocking Donald Trump and Joe Biden from obtaining 270 electoral votes. Under the 12th Amendment, if no candidate gets to 270, it is considered a Contingent Election.
There hasn’t been a Contingent Election since 1836, but that is a likely scenario for 2024. In a Contingent Election, the House of Representatives chooses the president, with one vote for each state and the District of Columbia. A candidate needs 26 votes to win. “The dynamics of a very divided electorate, a popular, moderate independent candidate and the importance of swing states, could lead to a scenario where the House picks Kennedy,” explained Lyons. “Kennedy has two clear pathways to the White House and we will do everything we can, while working closely with our attorneys and without coordinating with the campaign, to make sure that the uniparty fails in any efforts to derail the peaceful, populist revolution that he represents.”
American Values 2024 has hired two separate law firms to take all the steps necessary to get Kennedy on the ballot in the seven states listed above. They will also be hiring ground teams in each of those states to gather signatures.