Kennedy, West White House Bids Face Existential Ballot Access Questions

Nothing is more important to presidential campaigns than getting on the ballot in all 50 states. And, so far, neither Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nor Cornel West has invested much in doing just that.

It’s an existential problem for these independent candidates, who lack the infrastructure of a major political party and therefore face the costly proposition of following the intricate ballot access laws in each state. Many independent candidates rely on paid canvassers to do the work, a process that can come with pitfalls as evidenced by five gubernatorial candidates in Michigan getting kicked off the ballot in 2022 over invalid signatures.

The rules to qualify for the ballot vary from state to state. And some states put higher barriers on independent candidates seeking to qualify than they do for those candidates from major parties. Most of the deadlines for independents to qualify for the general election ballot begin in May 2024 and some stretch into September of the election year.

For an independent candidate, Kennedy’s campaign is well funded and could spend considerably on obtaining ballot access. He has raised $15 million dollars since the beginning of his bid and has spent nearly $9 million. He entered October with $6.1 million cash on hand, according to his latest filing with the Federal Election Commission. 

But he has yet to spend a dime on ballot access or petitioning services, according to a Messenger analysis of Kennedy’s campaign spending. 

Kennedy’s campaign has spent $917,000 on security services, with a majority of cash going to Gavin de Becker, a well-known security consultant who has provided his services to various celebrities. 

Kennedy has also spent $1.5 million on various research and communications consultants. His former campaign manager, Dennis Kucinich, was paid roughly $245,000 before he departed in October.

“We have a robust ballot-access team and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s name will be on the ballot in all 50 states," said Stefanie Spear, press secretary for the Kennedy campaign.

West, on the other hand, has raised just $216,000 since launching his longer-than-long-shot presidential bid. He has spent $91,700 on petitioning services, a significant portion of his war chest but a paltry amount given the hundreds of thousands – if not millions – that an independent candidates would need to spend to obtain the signatures required to get on ballots in all 50 states.

There had been plans for West, the longtime political activist and outspoken social critic, to run on the Green Party ticket in 2024, but those fell apart in recent weeks and the West campaign announced earlier this month that he would run as an independent. While West said that the decision was made so he could focus “100 percent on the people, not on the intricacies of internal party dynamics,” the move hurts West’s ballot access chances given the Green Party, despite not being electorally successful, has found success at getting on the ballot in key elections.

A West aide declined to comment on their plans.

Biden, meanwhile, can rely on the infrastructure from the Democratic National Committee to get on the ballot, one of the various advantages incumbency brings. 

Biden’s campaign announced earlier this year that they had hired two political veterans to lead the effort to get the president and Vice President Kamala Harris on the ballot in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and seven U.S. territories. Alana Mounce, the former executive director of the Nevada Democratic Party and a veteran of campaigns in the critical battleground state, is currently working as ballot access director for the Biden campaign. Varoon Modak, who previously worked as counsel in Elias Law Group's Political Law practice, works as general counsel for the ballot access effort.

Mounce, in an interview with The Messenger, said that Biden’s campaign has already started to build a team to get the president on the ballot, relying on both the campaign and the broader Democratic Party infrastructure to tackle what can be a detailed, arduous process. 

“You need to have a very detailed organization that understands what those processes are,” said Mounce. “Each state has its own unique process. It is a slice of life out there, in terms of the process, the deadlines, and the steps you need to take. … This is a process that has hundreds of deadlines that are attached to it and nuances where it is easy to make mistakes.”

She added: “[The support of state parties] is absolutely critical. And we are lucky that we have strong relationships with state parties across the country. State parties are some of the first people we call when we begin signature collection.”