Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dropped out of the presidential election and endorsed former President Donald Trump last week.
But that’s not stopping the former candidate from trying to rack up votes in Colorado.
Kennedy secured a place on the Colorado ballot by collecting tens of thousands of signatures from voters. And he has no intention of giving up that spot, according to his campaign’s communications with the Secretary of State’s office.
“We are not withdrawing in Colorado. Mr. Kennedy has encouraged all of his supporters to vote for him in CO!” the campaign wrote in an email to state officials this afternoon.
The campaign can still file paperwork to withdraw anytime through Sept. 6, but is apparently choosing not to. A spokesman for his campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kennedy has said he will attempt to withdraw from only 10 battleground states he believes his presence “would be a spoiler,” according to NPR. That strategy would leave his name on ballots in a number of states, including Colorado. And he’s encouraging people in those states to continue supporting him.
This is only the latest twist in RFK’s unusual campaign journey in this state. Members of the state Libertarian Party recently had a fierce fight over whether to make Kennedy the Libertarian candidate here, defying the wishes of that party’s national convention. Kennedy ended up running as an independent in Colorado and many other states, instead.
It’s unlikely that a Kennedy candidacy could swing Colorado’s presidential results toward Trump. President Joe Biden dominated the state with a 13-point victory in 2020.
A survey in June found that Kennedy was polling well in Colorado, for an independent candidate, with 12 percent of the vote and a 3.5 percent margin of error. But his support nationwide collapsed to less than 5 percent in recent months, and he was likely further damaged as Vice President Kamala Harris consolidated support among Democrats.
Kennedy’s decision to endorse Trump turned off one supporter in Colorado.
Giselle Massi had volunteered for the signature drive, but said RFK has now “failed a spiritual test of integrity. He had repeatedly told his supporters over these many months he was in it to win it. Yet he and his campaign were still sending out pitches for contributions during the extended period of time when he was considering bailing out and in active talks to merge camps with Trump,” she wrote in an email to CPR News.
“There is no redemption from this serious misstep as he has chosen to stand beside a convicted felon, Trump, who wants to gut the EPA and upend RFK Jr.’s career work in environmental advocacy and civil rights,” she continued.
Colorado GOP chair Dave Williams, whose own political future is highly contested, approves of Kennedy’s decision to stay on the Colorado ballot.
“RFK Jr. is giving disaffected left-leaning voters who cannot vote for a corrupt politician like Kamala Harris a choice come November,” he wrote in a text to CPR News.
Eli Bremer, who is attempting to replace Williams as chair of the Republican Party, similarly said it was a good idea to keep Kennedy on the ballot.
“I think this is a good tactical decision as there may be folks who would vote for Harris who will now pull the lever for RFK,” he texted to CPR News.
However, recent polling shows Kennedy pulls about 1 percentage point away from Trump across multiple swing states when it’s a three way contest.
Shad Murib, chair of the state Democratic Party, took the opportunity to dunk on Kennedy.
“I’m glad that RFK Jr. has finally acknowledged that a vote for him is a vote thrown away,” he wrote.
Election Day is Nov. 5.
