Former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has sued Wisconsin in an effort to help former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, win the battleground state.
Last month, Kennedy dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Trump. But Kennedy’s name is still on the ballot in several key swing states, which could determine the outcome of the election.
On Tuesday, Kennedy filed a lawsuit in Dane County in hopes of removing himself from the ballot in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted to approve Kennedy’s name for the ballot last week after a failed effort by Republican commissioners to remove him, which allowed county election clerks to start printing ballots for early voting.
In his lawsuit, Kennedy asks that the elections commission be prohibited from putting his name on the ballot and that the commission’s vote on the matter be halted.
Kennedy, who is one of eight presidential candidates on Wisconsin’s ballot, argued in his suit that third-party candidates are discriminated against since state law treats Republican and Democratic presidential candidates differently.
Former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former President Donald Trump shake hands during a campaign rally on August 23, 2024, in Glendale, Arizona. Kennedy has sued Wisconsin in an effort to help Trump win the battleground state.
Rebecca Noble/Getty Images
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, is currently 3.1 points ahead of Trump in Wisconsin (47 percent to 43.9 percent), according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling averages.
Kennedy hopes that if he is taken off the ballot in states like Wisconsin, it could give Trump the advantage.
When speaking about his decision to exit the race, Kennedy told NewsNation host Chris Cuomo on Tuesday, “I had no way to grow, and our polling was showing that if I stayed in the race, Vice President Harris would win, and I did not want that outcome.”
Independent and third-party candidates can have a huge impact on swing states where candidates win by slim margins. For example, Green Party nominee Jill Stein got just over 31,000 votes in Wisconsin during the 2016 election, which is more than Trump’s winning margin of a little under 23,000 votes.
Kennedy also filed lawsuits in Michigan and North Carolina to try to get off the ballots in those states.
Michigan Court of Claims Judge Christopher P. Yates ruled on Tuesday that Kennedy must remain on the state’s ballot, saying, “Elections are not just games, and the Secretary of State (SOS) is not obligated to honor the whims of candidates for public office.”
Kennedy’s lawyer Aaron Siri said in a statement keeping the former independent candidate’s name on Michigan’s ballot “upends ballot integrity.”
“We agree with the judge that elections are not games, and that is precisely why the court should have let Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. withdraw from the ballot,” Siri said.
Kennedy’s case in North Carolina is pending.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
