RFK Makes Last Effort To Withdraw Name From ‘Blue Wall’ Ballot

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans a campaign stop in Packer Land this week on behalf of former President Donald Trump, but his Hail Mary in the U.S. Supreme Court — if successful — would be an even bigger win for the GOP presidential candidate in the battleground Badger State. 

Kennedy is asking the high court to remove his name from the Wisconsin ballot, overturning decisions by a state circuit court and the Wisconsin Supreme Court. 

The Kennedy family scion, who ended his independent presidential campaign and endorsed Trump in August, also has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take his name off the Michigan ballot. It’s a last-ditch effort to help Trump win two so-called “Blue Wall” states where his third-party inclusion could peel away critical votes from the former president and give Trump’s Democrat opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, an electoral lift.

“… [I]n a race this close, every swing-state vote matters. So, if those who would vote for Trump in a two-way race pull the lever for Kennedy’s ghost ship of a campaign, Democrats will gladly take it,” Matt Bennett, co-founder of the center-left think tank Third Way, told The Hill in a story gloating about the damage RFK Jr.’s name could do in the two critical swing states. 

The RealClearPolitics averages of polls shows Trump leading Harris by a whisker — 0.2 percentage points in both Michigan and Wisconsin — going into the last campaign week before Election Day. 

‘Core Political Speech’ 

Elections officials in both states assert that millions of absentee ballots have already been printed and distributed for early voting and that allowing Kennedy’s request would disrupt the status quo. But his application for an emergency injunction before the Supreme Court argues that the former candidate sought to have his name removed before a single ballot had been printed in Wisconsin. 

The Wisconsin Elections Commission in September voted 5 to1 to keep Kennedy on the ballot, citing state law that demands that the only way a presidential nominee may exit the ballot is by dying. 

“Any person who files nomination papers and qualifies to appear on the ballot may not decline nomination. The name of that person shall appear upon the ballot except in case of death of the person,” the law states. 

But Kennedy’s legal counsel argues that Wisconsin nomination statute treats third-party candidates differently than major party players, giving the latter an additional month to exit the presidential election ballot. Such disparate treatment, Kennedy argues, is violation of the constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and of his First Amendment rights. In short, Kennedy’s support for Trump is “being compromised” by Wisconsin’s insistence that he remain on the ballot, a move expected to hurt the presidential candidate he is supporting. 

“It’s Robert F. Kennedy’s absolute right to endorse Donald Trump for President. Over the past months, he’s done that in myriad ways, all over the country and especially in the critical swing state of Wisconsin,” the court filing states. “In Wisconsin, he wants everyone who will listen to him to vote for Trump. That is core political speech and it’s protected under the First Amendment. To ensure that message is conveyed clearly and without confusion, he asked that his name not appear on the Wisconsin ballot. He wanted to be clear: his endorsement was for Trump.”

Kennedy has proposed a solution for the problem of printed ballots. Wisconsin law allows stickers to be placed over a candidate’s name in cases of death. The same can be done with his name. While RFK Jr. is alive and well, his presidential campaign is dead and buried. 

“That same relief could remedy the violation of Kennedy’s constitutional rights,” the Supreme Court filing states. 

While Kennedy’s challenge is considered a long-shot, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, whose circuit assignment — the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals — includes Wisconsin, has ordered responses in what would be an expedited case. 

‘A Question of Exceptional Importance’

Kennedy’s request for an injunction in Wisconsin signaled he would seek the same in Michigan. He followed through last week.

Michigan’s hyperpartisan leftist Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson originally denied Kennedy’s request to withdraw from the state’s presidential ballot. The left-led Michigan Supreme Court sided with Benson, as effectively did the 6th U.S. Circuit  Court of Appeals. The federal court decided that RFK Jr. had not explained how to change the status quo so close to an election “without great harm to voting rights and the public’s interest in fair and efficient election administration.” 

In his application for an injunction in Michigan, Kennedy noted a dissent in the 6th Circuit ruling arguing that the case “presents a question of exceptional importance: Does forcing a person onto the ballot compel his speech in violation of the First Amendment?” 

“The repercussions of that question are enormous,” Judge Amul R. Thapar wrote. “If a candidate can’t stop his name from appearing on the ballot, could battleground states put President Joe Biden back on their ballots? Could states put anyone they wanted on their ballots (in violation of their own election laws)?”

Lacking any sense of self-awareness, Adrienne Watson, an adviser to the Democratic National Committee, attacked RKF Jr. for “manipulation of the system” for attempting to “get on the ballot where it helps Trump and off the ballot where it hurts.” Watson called the effort “unprecedented and undemocratic.” 

Democrats have attempted to do the same thing, fighting in courtrooms to keep Kennedy on the ballot in swing states while working to remove leftist third-party presidential candidates, such as the Green Party’s Jill Stein, where their presence on the ballot hurts Harris’ chances. 

The Supreme Court last month did reject Stein’s effort to be added to swing state Nevada’s ballot, and it denied RFK Jr.’s request to be placed on New York’s presidential candidate list. Kennedy has won ballot battles in swing states Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina. 

Kennedy will be back in Wisconsin on Tuesday — a week from Election Day — campaigning for Trump alongside former Democrat congresswoman and newly minted Republican Tulsi Gabbard. They’ll be in Madison, the belly of Wisconsin’s liberal beast, as part of the Team Trump Reclaim America Tour.

For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.