Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during the Libertarian National Convention at the Washington Hilton in Washington, May 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. showed up too late to testify Tuesday in a court case in Pennsylvania where Democratic activists are trying to bar him from the ballot for president in the premier battleground state, prompting testy exchanges between the judge and Kennedy’s lawyer.
Lawyers for the two Democratic activists who filed the challenge say Kennedy’s candidacy paperwork states a fake home address — an allegation being aired in other state courts — and falls short of the signature-gathering requirement applied by state law to third-party candidates.
Kennedy showed up an hour and 40 minutes late, blaming a canceled flight from Massachusetts to Harrisburg, and never testified after Commonwealth Court Judge Lori Dumas chose to proceed without him as a witness.
“This is the first that I’m hearing about this,” Dumas said when told about Kennedy’s absence. Shortly after Kennedy arrived, the judge adjourned the hearing and did not say when she will rule.
Should Kennedy appear on Pennsylvania’s ballot, he could siphon critical support from Republican nominee Donald Trump or Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in a state where a margin of tens of thousands of votes delivered victory to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 and Trump in 2016.
Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes — tied with Illinois for fifth most — is of such importance that Harris visited the state Sunday and Trump visited both Saturday and Monday.
Kennedy’s lawyer criticized Dumas’ decision to proceed without Kennedy testifying. Kennedy, meanwhile, accused the Democratic Party of trying to disenfranchise tens of millions of people who would vote for him by forcing him off the ballot.
“To me, it’s a sad devolution of this party that the only way that they can win elections is to keep its opponents off the debating stage, off the ballots and use lawfare to try to win elections rather than campaigning,” Kennedy said in brief comments to reporters outside the courthouse.
Asked if he would continue running if he can’t be on the ballot in every state, Kennedy replied, “I’ll be on the ballot in every state.”
Kennedy’s campaign has dismissed the legal challenge as “frivolous.”
Kennedy’s lawyer, Paul Rossi, argued that a state should have no interest in banning a candidate from the presidential ballot because of a dispute over a requirement to publish their residence on their petitions.
He warned of a “patchwork” of state court rulings kicking presidential candidates off ballots, referring back to March’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that restored Trump to 2024 presidential primary ballots and rejected state attempts to ban him under a provision of the 14th Amendment.
Rossi also said a 2016 ruling in federal court that ordered substantially lower signature requirements for minor-party candidates should apply to Kennedy.
Tim Ford, a lawyer for the challengers, said Kennedy, by filing petitions that violate state law and showing up late to court, is showing that he doesn’t think the rules to apply to him.
“It really shows a total disregard for our process here in Pennsylvania and a disrespect for the voters who have to make the decision of who they’re going to vote for for president,” Ford told reporters.
Kennedy hasn’t demonstrated that that federal court ruling on third-party signature thresholds should apply in this case, Ford said. He also said the “patchwork” argument is over a federal constitutional case, and doesn’t apply to a case in which Pennsylvania is setting legitimate rules for ballot access.
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 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.
Testimony from the New York case was entered into evidence in the Pennsylvania case.
Rossi said Kennedy used the New York address in part to avoid violating the Constitution’s 12th Amendment, which prohibits a president and vice president from residing in the same state. Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, also lives in California. New York is where he is registered to vote and he eventually intends to return there to live, Rossi said.
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.