How R.F.K. Jr. Got on the Michigan Ballot, With Only Two Votes
The independent candidate persuaded a tiny party to give him its line on the ballot in a key 2024 battleground state, sparing him a costly, arduous organizing effort.
For 22 years, Doug Dern, a bankruptcy lawyer with a small practice outside Detroit,
has almost single-handedly kept the 🔸Natural Law Party 🔸on Michigan’s ballot.
👉Each cycle, the party runs a handful of candidates in obscure state races to meet Michigan’s minimum polling requirements for minor parties.
“Keep that #ballot#access,” Mr. Dern, 62, said in an interview on Friday.
“Because someday, a candidate is going to come along who’s going to be perfect for it. Someday, the third parties are going to be hot.”
That day may have come.
In gaining access to the ballot in Michigan, a critical swing state in the 2024 election, Mr. #Kennedy has injected new uncertainty into what promises to be one of the most closely contested presidential races in history.
And 💥he did it without having to gather a single signature, 💥avoiding a costly and arduous organizing effort, not to mention the possibility of having to fight court challenges to those signatures.