In our exclusive interview with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the candidate discussed some obstacles to getting on Nevada's ballot for the November general election.
Last week, Kennedy filed a lawsuit after his previous petition was invalidated due to a clerical issue.
ONLY ON 2: WATCH FULL INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.
2 News Nevada Reporter Josh Meny conducted an exclusive interview with presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"We checked with the (Secretary of State) in January; we got his written assurance from his office that we could collect signatures without the vice president on the ballot," said independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The RFK Jr. campaign gathered over 15,000 signatures that were required. They presented them in January, and in early March, the Secretary of State informed the campaign that an employee of the Secretary of State's office had provided the Kennedy campaign with "inaccurate guidance." The campaign was then informed that they needed to have a vice president listed on their ballot petition.
"So we are litigating, we filed suit immediately," said Kennedy.
Kennedy filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada against Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar. Aguilar is responsible for overseeing elections.
"The court must prohibit what was either rank incompetence or partisan political gamesmanship by the Secretary from invalidating petition signatures afforded the highest First Amendment protection by the United States Supreme Court," said Paul Rossi, Senior Counsel for the Kennedy 2024 Campaign, in a statement.
We interviewed the Nevada Secretary of State, Cisco Aguilar, about the situation.
"We did have another interaction with the campaign team or the RFK campaign team. They have resubmitted their application again for their signature gathering documents because there was a clerical error on the original document," said (D) Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar.
Despite the acknowledgment by the Secretary of State's office that an employee provided the RFK Jr. campaign with inaccurate information, as of Tuesday the campaign is currently working on collecting and resubmitting the required number of signatures.
"At the same time we are taking the precaution to do the ballot access drive all over again and we're going to collect another 15-thousand signatures, and one way or another, or by two ways we'll be on the ballot by August," said Kennedy.
The deadline for RFK Jr. to submit the second round of signatures is July 5th.
"We're not going to pick and choose how we implement the law and how we follow statute, the secretary of state is a regulator. It is our job to call balls and strikes. It is our job to ensure that Nevada has the safest and most secure elections in the country," explained Aguilar.
Kennedy chose California lawyer and philanthropist Nicole Shanahan as his running mate at the end of March, a few weeks after he submitted the petition. The lawsuit is happening as Kennedy works to get on the ballot in enough states to have at least 270 electoral votes by June 20th. This is in order to qualify for the CNN debate stage with former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.
The first presidential debate is June 27th. During the Libertarian Convention on May 27th, RFK Jr. challenged Donald Trump to a debate, but Trump declined.
Kennedy has informed us about the issues he's facing in other states while trying to get on the ballot, despite having gathered more than enough signatures. Additionally, RFK Jr. discusses the DNC's communications with CNN to keep him off the first presidential debate stage. You can learn more in our full exclusive interview with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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2 News Nevada Reporter Josh Meny conducted an exclusive interview with presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
