Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. officially qualified to appear on the 2024 ballot in Utah. The independent candidate trekked to the Utah Capitol on Wednesday morning to turn in the required 1,000 signatures to secure his spot in November.
Utah is the first state where the prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist has qualified for the ballot this year.
Kennedy has embraced unfounded conspiracy theories about COVID-19, claiming the virus was engineered to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people from infection. Kennedy has also frequently spread misinformation about the effectiveness of vaccines. If elected, he promised to order the National Institutes of Health to stop studying infectious diseases and use the Justice Department to force medical journals to publish discredited studies about vaccines.
On Tuesday, his campaign hired another prominent anti-vaccine activist, Del Bigtree as his new communications director.
Kennedy’s campaign sued Utah in December, claiming the state’s Jan. 8 deadline for independent candidates to submit signatures for ballot access was unconstitutionally restrictive. As a result of that litigation, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson agreed to move the deadline to March 5. Kennedy thanked his volunteer signature gatherers for beating the original deadline with several days to spare.
”We got double the signatures we need in a very short time period. It was very bad weather,” Kennedy said during a morning news conference. “The volunteers had to go out into public places and persuade passers-by to sign their names even though it was cold. They did a spectacular job.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gains ballot access in Utah through gathered signatures at Utah State Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024.
Kennedy complained about the patchwork of requirements for independent candidates that differ from state to state, concluding they are designed to keep candidates like him off the ballot.
“The Democratic and Republican parties have succeeded in this country in implementing a number of rules and procedures that make it almost impossible for anybody to challenge their chokehold,” Kennedy said.
It is unlikely Kennedy will impact the presidential race in Utah — the state has gone for the Republican nominee in every election since 1968. The last Democrat to carry Utah was Lyndon Johnson in 1964.
That longshot status doesn’t seem to faze Kennedy, who predicted he could beat Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump if he could qualify for the ballot in enough states. Kennedy also criticized Colorado and Maine for keeping Trump off the ballot under the 14th Amendment, which says a person who has “engaged in insurrection” cannot hold elected office.
“I believe I can beat Donald Trump in an election, that I can beat him in a debate,” Kennedy said. “I want that to be fair and square. I don’t want the playing field to be slanted.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at a news conference in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024.
Independent candidates have had some success in the Beehive state. Ross Perot finished ahead of Democrat Bill Clinton in Utah in 1992, capturing 27.3% of the vote to Clinton’s 24.6%. In 2016, Evan McMullin’s independent presidential bid tapped into unease with Republican Donald Trump among some Republicans to capture 21.5% of the vote.
