Days after independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.suspended his campaign and said he would seek to have his name removed from battleground state ballots, the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) voted to keep Kennedy on the state’s general election ballot.
Kennedy sent a letter to the WEC on Friday, requesting that his name be removed from the ballot, but the commission, which is made up of three Democrats and three Republicans, voted 5-1 on Tuesday to approve Kennedy’s and two other candidates’ names for the ballot, WKOW reported. A motion to remove Kennedy from the ballot after the initial vote failed in a 3-3 split. The commission cited a state law that says candidates cannot decline their nomination after filing for ballot access.
“We know Trump and Kennedy are playing games,” said Democratic elections commission member Mark Thompson, according to the Associated Press. “Whatever games they’re playing, they have to play them with Kennedy on the ballot.”
Independent candidate Cornel West and Green Party candidate Jill Stein also made the Wisconsin ballot after legal challenges to their candidacies. The Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected Democrats’ attempts on Monday to boot Stein from the state’s ballot. Stein was accused by Democrats of taking votes from Hillary Clinton in 2016 when Trump defeated her with the help of Wisconsin’s electoral votes. Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by just over 22,000 votes.
The WEC’s decision comes after Michigan Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said that Kennedy must also remain on Michigan’s general election ballot, meaning the Democrat-turned-independent could sway the vote tallies for Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in two vital swing states.
Kennedy endorsed Trump last week and said he would push to remove his name from the ballot in “10 battleground states,” fearing he would act as a “spoiler.” The ex-Democrat blasted his former party after suspending his 2024 campaign, saying, “In the name of saving democracy, the Democratic Party set itself to dismantling it, lacking confidence in its candidate, that its candidate could win in a fair election at the voting booth, the DNC waged continual legal warfare against both President Trump and myself.”
Both Wisconsin and Michigan have played important roles in the last two presidential elections. Trump won both states on his way to the White House in 2016 and then lost both states to Joe Biden in 2020. Whoever pulls out victories in Wisconsin and Michigan in 2024 will have a much easier path to 270 electoral votes.
No comments:
Post a Comment