Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy holds event to qualify for November ballot

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential candidate, hosted an event at the Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines April 13, 2024, to gain ballot access for the 2024 presidential election. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called for voters to reject the two-party system and support him for president at an Iowa event Saturday aimed at getting on the state’s general election ballot.

Speaking to a crowd of more than 700 at Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines, Kennedy said he was asked earlier in the day about a recently published New York Times/Siena College poll that found he had only 2% of support in the general election.

“Do you think if I only had 2% support that this big a crowd would come in here today?” Kennedy said.

He said other polls, like the November 2023 Quinnipiac University poll, show he has growing popularity, and that popularity is reflected when he is listed as an option for the next president.

That fight — to be listed and recognized as a candidate alongside President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump — is what brought Kennedy to Iowa. He is currently fighting for a spot on the general election ballot in multiple states – his campaign and supporting super PAC have also said they have collected enough signatures to be listed as a candidate in the November election in states including Nevada, New Hampshire, Michigan, Arizona and Georgia.

Talking with reporters after the event, Kennedy said he plans to be on the general election ballot and ramp up efforts to qualify throughout the country.

“We will have ballot access in every state by the end of July,” he said. “We will be announcing new states every week now, two to three new states a week. I think it will become pretty obvious very, very quickly that we will get ballot access everywhere.”

Typically, presidential candidates must get 3,500 signatures from at least 19 counties on a petition to qualify for the ballot. But the law also allows third-party presidential candidates to qualify by hosting a convention with at least 500 eligible Iowa voters from 25 counties attending who sign a form attesting they were at the event. With 686 voters from 35 Iowa counties in attendance, campaign staff said the event is expected to meet that requirement.

The gathering served as a convention for the “We the People” party, the political party formed for Kennedy’s candidacy. Iowa attendees officially nominated Kennedy as their presidential candidate and Nicole Shanahan as vice presidential candidate.

Both Democrats and Republicans have denounced Kennedy as a potential “spoiler,” hurting their chances in what’s expected to be a close race between Biden and Trump. Members of both major parties have also criticized Kennedy for promoting misinformation on issues like COVID-19. In a news release Friday, Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann called the candidate a “distraction” from the race between Biden and Trump.

“He’s peddling his toxic conspiracy theories instead of speaking to the problems facing Americans caused by the Biden Administration,” Kaufmann said in a statement. “Iowans want solutions, not distractions.”

Some Iowans, including Denise McCauley of Des Moines, disagreed with the characterization of Kennedy’s positions as conspiratorial.

“It’s a conspiracy right up until it’s proven correct,” McCauley said. “… If you go back through history, you know, somebody has to say, ‘something doesn’t seem right.’ And you can label that a conspiracy theory, but if it turns out to be true, then it wasn’t a conspiracy theory, right?”

McCauley said she supported Kennedy because of his positions on bodily autonomy – both on issues of abortion access and vaccine mandates – as well as on supporting free speech and avoiding U.S. involvement in international conflicts.

While McCauley supported Kennedy as a Democratic candidate, she said she was glad to see him run as an independent after not being given a “fair shot” in the Democratic nominating process.

She also said Kennedy – and the support he is getting nationally – represents growing dissatisfaction with the two-party system.

“I don’t like Trump or Biden,” McCauley said. “And when you listen to the news, a lot of people are saying that, I’m not alone in that. But that’s not the only reason I like him. If just you listen to him and not what they’re saying about him, he’s saying all the things that I agree with, that you want to hear from a candidate.”

Supporters of both Trump and Biden have expressed concerns about the potential impact Kennedy could have on the race, potentially drawing away crucial votes in what’s predicted to be a close race.

According to reporting by USA Today, the Democratic National Committee has hired attorneys to monitor Kennedy’s endeavors to gain ballot access across the country, concerned about voters who would prefer an alternative to Biden. He said he was disappointed to see Democrats use “underhanded tricks” to try to keep him from being on states’ ballots.

Kennedy criticized both parties as fear-mongering, claiming they are working to dissuade voters from supporting his campaign.

“We’ve seen … both the Democratic and the Republican Party turn against the values that they traditionally represented for our country,” Kennedy said. “And so many of us feel homeless today in terms of political parties, because we still love our country, and we believe in its idealism.”

The candidate said Biden and Trump have “narrow” differences, largely on culture war issues like abortion, border security and transgender rights. He said that while these issues are important, the two presumptive nominees are ignoring important issues like the federal deficit, corporate influence on politics and declining health of Americans – a phenomenon he linked to “processed foods” and farming practices involving potentially dangerous chemicals.

He said voters already know Biden and Trump’s policy positions – and what they’re like in office.

“If you want more of the same, you should vote for them. Does anyone here want more of the same?” Kennedy said. The crowd cheered when he asked, “Does anybody here want a complete change?”

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