Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is one step closer to appearing on ballots across Oregon this November.
All it took was a brand-new political party.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., right, waves to a group of supporters as he arrives at the Albany County Courthouse to fight a lawsuit he falsely claimed to live in New York state, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Albany, N.Y.
Hans Pennink / AP
On Monday, the Oregon Secretary of State’s office verified that backers of the independent presidential candidate had gathered enough valid signatures to create a new minor statewide party.
Dubbed the “We The People” party, the political organization was created for the express purpose of nominating Kennedy and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, for a slot on the ballot.
Now that the party has been certified, it must adopt bylaws, select officers, and conduct a nominating process by Aug. 27, according to Laura Kerns, a spokesperson for Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade.
It was unclear Monday how the organization would go about the nomination. Jonathan Bradford Handley, a Portland financier who filed the petition to create the new party, did not respond to repeated inquiries about the party’s plans.
In late July, the Kennedy campaign issued a release with a quote from Mike Cully, who it said is the state director.
“Kennedy is the best choice for president thanks to his commitment to protect the environment, human health, and civil rights,” Cully said in the release. “He is the only candidate running that knows how to unravel corporate capture of our government agencies.”
The certification of the new party comes as RFK Jr. mounts a push to qualify for the ballot in all 50 states, a goal he has said he is on the cusp of achieving, despite the fact that many states have yet to certify signatures to nominate him. On Monday, a New York judge ruled that Kennedy had falsely claimed he was a resident of the state, potentially imperiling his ability to qualify for the ballot there.
Kennedy — the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew to former President John F. Kennedy — first signaled he would run for president as a Democrat. He changed course last year, deciding to run as an independent instead.
A prominent vaccine skeptic and environmental lawyer, Kennedy is accompanied on the campaign trail by a growing list of odd anecdotes, from the tale of doctors finding a worm in his brain to his recent admission he dumped a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park.
Polling suggests Kennedy has no chance of winning the presidency, but there are questions about whether he is more likely to pull votes from Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump in swing states that could see extremely tight vote margins.
According to a recent profile in The New Yorker, Kennedy’s campaign is focusing on “Democrats in reliably Republican states and Republicans in reliably Democratic states.” In Oregon, that means Kennedy would be angling for Republicans.
Handley, the Portland businessman who spearheaded the political party that will nominate Kennedy, appears to have a relatively short history of political giving. State records indicate he has donated $40,000 to state Sen. Tim Knopp, a Republican from Bend. He has also given $1,000 to state Rep. Ben Bowman, D-Tigard, now the House majority leader, and contributed $5,000 to a 2013 campaign that opposed fluoridating Portland’s drinking water.
Under Oregon law, minor statewide political parties can nominate candidates for partisan offices at all levels. According to the Secretary of State’s office, Handley turned in 54,000 signatures in July. To succeed the effort needed 29,294 valid signatures, equal to 1.5% of the total votes cast in the 2022 gubernatorial election.
Kennedy is not the only third-party candidate slated to appear on the November ballot. The Oregon Progressive Party has said it will nominate progressive activist and intellectual Cornel West.