Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is seeking to be on the ballot in New York state even though he suspended his presidential campaign.
Kennedy’s lawyer appealed a state judge’s decision to remove him from the ballot in the Empire State Wednesday, per the Associated Press.
The former Independent presidential candidate was removed from the ballot after a judge ruled Kennedy did not live in New York, as he claimed, but in California.
On Friday, Kennedy suspended his campaign in favor of endorsing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Kennedy has also been tapped for a spot on Trump’s transition team.
Since suspending his campaign, Kennedy has sought to take his name off ballots in certain states — those where the election is expected to be close.
It’s a different story in other states, such as Oregon, where Kennedy filed as a nominee of the We the People party Monday.
As such, officials said Kennedy will appear on the ballot.
This appears to be a strategic move, as Oregon Public Broadcasting reported, “to suck votes away from the Democratic Party, which obviously he has disenfranchised himself from,” according to Mike Cully, who ran Kennedy’s Oregon operations.
Kennedy’s legal team has asserted he meant no harm in listing a friend’s address in a New York suburb as his own.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could have put his residence as the moon and no one would be confused with who Robert F. Kennedy is,” lawyer Jim Walden said to a mid-level appeals court judges during a hearing.
Walden said there is precedence for courts to consider petition addresses valid unless deception or confusion is at play.
That is not the case with Kennedy, a member of “one of the most distinguished political families in United States history,” Walden said.
However, an attorney plaintiffs in a lawsuit backed by a Democrat-aligned political action said Kennedy should be truthful in his filings.
“Mr. Kennedy could live anywhere. He just wasn’t allowed to lie about where he lives,” attorney John Quinn said.
Kennedy has lived in Los Angeles area since 2014 and is married to actor Cheryl Hines.
