September 10, 2024, 3:00 AM
RFK Jr. Fails in Attempt to Withdraw Michigan Vote
LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain on the ballot for the state’s November presidential election, ending Kennedy’s efforts to withdraw his name to help endorse former President Donald Trump.
Kennedy ended a third-party presidential campaign in August to endorse Trump, and on August 30, he sued Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, to remove his name from the Michigan ballot to avoid taking votes away from Trump, who won the state by about 10,000 votes in 2016.
Monday’s ruling overturned a mid-level appeals court ruling issued Friday that ensured Kennedy’s name would appear on voters’ ballots in key battleground states despite his withdrawal from the race.
In a brief order, the court said Kennedy “has not shown that he is entitled to this extraordinary relief, and therefore the judgment is set aside.”
“This clearly has nothing to do with voting or election integrity,” Kennedy’s attorney, Aaron Siri, said in a written statement. “Its purpose is exactly the opposite – to persuade unsuspecting Michigan voters to waste their vote on a withdrawn candidate.”
The Associated Press has contacted Benson’s office for comment on the ruling.
Kennedy is seeking to withdraw his name from swing states in November, having won a legal victory in North Carolina but suffered a setback in Wisconsin on Friday.
The Michigan Supreme Court currently has a 4-3 Democratic-appointed majority. The order was unsigned, with two Republican-appointed justices writing dissenting opinions.
“We hope that the Secretary of State’s misguided actions, with the backing of this Court, will not have nationwide repercussions,” the dissenting justices wrote.
Kennedy was Michigan’s Natural Law Party nominee for president, and Benson had previously cited a state law that says a candidate who has been nominated and accepted the nomination of a minor party “is not permitted to withdraw.”
This article has been generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
Read the latest news, updates…
Show more