Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will not be on the debate stage on June 27th, falling short of the qualification criteria and missing out on the chance to debate former President Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
As the New York Post reports, Kennedy just barely fell short in the polling criteria and came up much shorter with regards to the electoral vote criteria. CNN, the host of the debate, requires a candidate to garner 15% or higher in at least four national polls, and to be registered on the ballot in enough states that the candidate could feasibly win 270 electoral votes, which is the minimum required to become President.
Kennedy had achieved 15% in three polls, just one poll shy of the threshold. And although his campaign claims that its “aggressive ballot access operation has surpassed all its milestones to ensure” ballot access in all 50 states, election officials in a majority of claimed states could not verify Kennedy’s ballot access.
The Kennedy campaign says that he is “officially on the ballot in nine states,” with those nine being California, Delaware, Hawaii, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah. The campaign then claimed that he has “collected enough signatures for ballot access in 14 other states,” with those states being Alaska, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, and Washington. If all 23 of these states verified Kennedy’s ballot access, it would make him eligible for 310 electoral votes.
However, according to the Washington Post, the only states with election officials that could confirm Kennedy’s ballot access were Delaware, Michigan, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah. CNN further confirmed his access in California and Hawaii. These seven states together makes Kennedy eligible for just 100 electoral votes, 170 shy of the minimum.
The Kennedy campaign issued a defiant statement following the report, asserting that Kennedy had indeed crossed both thresholds.
“In regards to Washington Post’s premise that Mr. Kennedy isn’t on enough state ballots to fulfill CNN’s requirement to be on the debate stage on June 27, the bottom line is he is eligible for more electoral votes than both Presidents Trump and Biden since they have not yet been nominated by their parties,” said Kennedy campaign press secretary Stefanie Spear.
The campaign went on to accuse CNN of “violating federal law” by not including Kennedy.
“[The Federal Election Commission] has made clear that the phrase ‘presumptive nominee’ is ‘not in the FEC’s debate regulation,’” Spear continued. “Failure to use objective criteria renders the debate a campaign contribution, subject to strict donation limits, therefore CNN is violating federal law.”
The June 27th debate in Atlanta, Georgia will be the first of just two scheduled debates between Trump and Biden. The second, to be hosted by ABC News, is scheduled for September 10th, after both candidates have been nominated at their parties’ respective conventions.
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