Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Monday that he and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, turned in an impressive 245,572 signatures to the Texas Secretary of State’s office, more than double the number required to gain ballot access in the state for November’s election.
Kennedy has formally gained access to the electoral college-rich state heading into the 2024 election.
The far left Kennedy has siphoned support from President Donald Trump’s Democratic base, many of whom are upset with Democratic Party mishandling of the 2020 COVID pandemic and the Israel-Hamas war. There is also concern among Republican Party leaders that Kennedy could pull votes from presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
With the submission of these signatures, Texas becomes the sixth state where RFK, Jr’s ticket has officially qualified, joining Utah, Michigan, California, Delaware, and Oklahoma.
The Ke]=[ampaign claimed that they have collected enough signatures to qualify for eight additional states: New Hampshire, Nevada, Hawaii, North Carolina, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa, and Ohio.
Kennedy’s campaign press secretary, Stefanie Spear, celebrated the milestone on X (formerly Twitter), stating, “It’s official. Kennedy-Shanahan on Texas ballot! By collecting nearly a quarter of a million signatures in just two months, the campaign has shown it can overcome the most difficult ballot access requirement in the country.”
The campaign also noted that RFK Jr. is the first independent candidate to qualify for the ballot in Texas since Pat Buchanan in 2000, highlighting the significance of their achievement.
A recent Marist poll conducted in March showed RFK Jr. has approximately 15 percent support in Texas, with Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump leading with 48 percent of the vote and President Joe Biden trailing at 36 percent.
Nationally, Kennedy is polling at an average of 10.8% in five-way polls, according to RealClearPolitics, while Trump holds a 2.7-point lead over Biden.
MSNBC was unhappy with the news, with former Republican Florida congressman turned MSNBC political commentator David Jolly blasting the Kennedy campaign as run by “MAGA crazy Republicans” that is intent to take down Biden.
“He is a MAGA crazy Republican; he’s a vaccine denier,” Jolly claimed. “He denies science, he flip-flops on the issue of abortion and even his own VP candidate can’t keep up with where he is day to day on the most important issue going into November.”
Kennedy’s stance on abortion has been seen as a weak point of his campaign after he said in a recent interview that women should be able to get an abortion “even if it’s full-term,” surprising his running mate, Shanahan.
She clarified, “My understanding is that he absolutely believes in limits on abortion, and we’ve talked about this. I do not think, I don’t know where that came from.”
In a separate development on Monday, Kennedy filed a lawsuit against Facebook parent company Meta, alleging election interference.
The lawsuit, filed by Kennedy and a super PAC supporting him, American Values 2024, claims that Meta blocked a 30-minute political advertisement about his life, censoring the video “within minutes” of its release on May 3.
The Horn News has the video, unedited and uncensored, here –
The Bobby Kennedy video Meta doesn’t want you to see, narrated by Woody Harrelson. pic.twitter.com/oBieuglEYv
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 4, 2024