Election workers process ballots for the 2020 presidential election at the Multnomah County election office in Portland, Ore., November 2, 2020.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his longshot presidential campaign. That wasn’t enough to stop Kennedy’s fans from landing him on the Oregon ballot.
On Monday, three days after the independent presidential candidate threw his support behind former President Donald Trump, members of a newly formed Oregon political party nominated Kennedy anyway.
That means that Kennedy and his erstwhile running mate, Nicole Shanahan, will appear on the Oregon ballot as candidates of the We The People party.
“In essence, this is a disruptor,” said Mike Cully, who ran Kennedy’s nascent Oregon operation before it shut down last week. '
While it’s not clear whether Kennedy will attract more voters who would otherwise support Trump or Harris, Cully said putting the candidate on the ballot is “meant to suck votes away from the Democratic Party, which obviously he has disenfranchised himself from.”
Not that Oregon voters will be hearing much about Kennedy’s ideas. “We are not doing volunteer meetings anymore,” Cully said. “We’re not actively out there campaigning. The campaign itself in Oregon is idle.”
Kennedy said Friday he planned to remove himself from consideration in the 10 or so states that could go to either Trump or Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris this fall, though that strategy hasn’t been wholly successful. Battleground states Michigan and Wisconsin have said he must remain on their ballots.
Kennedy also said last week he would press forward in states like Oregon, where the outcome of the presidential election is not in doubt. The state hasn’t voted for a Republican president since Ronald Reagan won reelection in 1984.
Cully said the ultimate goal is for Kennedy to receive more than 5% of the national popular vote, which he argued would pave the way for the We The People party to be more viable in years to come.
“We’re setting up for the future,” he said. “People are obviously disenchanted with the two-party system right now.”
Kennedy is the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, both Democrats. He began his run for president as a Democrat before becoming an independent candidate last October.
He has alleged that the Democratic Party sabotaged his presidential run. And on Tuesday, Trump’s campaign announced that Kennedy would become a member of his transition team if the Republican is successful in November.