National Democrats in particular have been active in trying to undercut the candidacy of Kennedy, a scion of one of the party’s most famous families. Trump has alternated between bashing Kennedy as liberal or courting his endorsement.
Kennedy meanwhile is fighting challenges in several other states, including Georgia, and is appealing a judge’s decision in New York last week that rejected Kennedy’s nominating petitions because his listed residence was a “sham” address. Kennedy lists his address as New York, but the judge ruled in favor of the challengers, who argued Kennedy’s actual residence was the home in Los Angeles he shares with his wife, the actor Cheryl Hines.
Kennedy’s campaign otherwise says it has collected enough signatures for ballot access in all 50 states and that it is officially on the ballot in 22 states, including the battlegrounds of Michigan and North Carolina.
In Pennsylvania, the Green Party’s Jill Stein and the Libertarian Party’s Chase Oliver submitted petitions to get on Pennsylvania’s presidential ballot without being challenged.
Two other court challenges were ongoing. A Democratic-aligned court challenge was targeting the nominating papers for the Party for Socialism and Liberation presidential candidate Claudia De la Cruz while a Republican-aligned challenge was targeting the Constitution Party presidential candidate James Clymer.