Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign has added North Carolina to the growing list of battleground states where he has qualified for the ballot in November.
The independent candidate’s campaign states that they now have the required signatures to include Kennedy as a White House contender through the “We The People” party, having gathered 23,000 pledges of support in the purple state.
“We have the field teams, volunteers, legal teams, paid circulators, supporters, and strategists ready to get the job done,” said Stefanie Spear, press secretary for Kennedy's campaign, in a statement on Monday announcing the news.
North Carolina is seen as a crucial swing state for all parties in 2024, including a potential third-party ticket. Former President Trump narrowly won the state in 2020, giving Republicans a slight advantage and motivating Democrats to try to win it this time around.
Including North Carolina, Kennedy’s ballot is now approved in five states, including Utah, New Hampshire, and Hawaii. In Nevada, he reached the signature threshold before meeting the requirement of having a declared vice president alongside his name, raising questions about whether he will need to collect signatures again.
Kennedy’s team is optimistic that choosing Nicole Shanahan as his running mate will encourage more voters to support his ballot access push. Shanahan’s background as a tech lawyer who was previously married to the co-founder of Google is seen as a strategic advantage for his campaign’s ballot access strategy.
