In an endeavor aimed at securing access to state ballots across all 50 states, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign has shifted its focus towards utilizing more consultants and paid signature gatherers in conjunction with grassroots efforts and legal action. Previously relying heavily on volunteers for this purpose, the effort is now being managed by petition circulator Trent Pool’s consulting firm Accelevate 2020, ballot access director Nicholas Brana, and campaign lawyer Paul A. Rossi. Between November and March, Kennedy’s campaign paid Accelevate 2020 $389,00 for their services in relation to campaign consultancy. The super PAC supporting the candidate has also spent at least $2.4 million on ballot-securing efforts so far.
Kennedy’s candidacy is expected to draw voters away from both former President Donald Trump and current president Joe Biden, but the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has taken a hostile stance against Kennedy, assembling national legal and public relations teams aimed at weakening his influence. Rossi himself has already filed three lawsuits on behalf of Kennedy’s campaign, which challenge signature collection rules in Idaho, Utah, and Maine respectively. According to the Times, their strategy is “to knock out as many ballot access restrictions across the country as possible.”
Kennedy’s campaign claims they have gathered enough signatures for submission in six additional states apart from Michigan where he has already secured ballot access alongside Hawaii, which will soon follow suit. However, to give Democratic officials less time to challenge filings, Kennedy’s team is delaying submissions until just before the deadline.
In Utah’s lawsuit, Rossi challenges disclosure requirements for paid signature gatherers while in Nevada he questions whether submitted petitions lacked a vice presidential candidate due to an uncommunicated rule that has been enforced for years by state elections officials. This led to friction between consultants and grassroots volunteers in Hawaii where the lawyer took over drafting bylaws for creating a new political form to put Kennedy on the ballot, which deprived volunteers of control over this process.
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