Eric Risberg / AP
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. right, waves on stage with Nicole Shanahan, after announcing her as his running mate, during a campaign event, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Oakland, Calif.
Wednesday, March 27, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump have long shared a love of conspiracy theories, but news earlier this week revealed that they also share a disregard and disdain for the rule of law. Both are unfit to serve in the Oval Office.
At the beginning of the week, RFK Jr. learned that he may have to regather the more than 10,000 signatures from Nevada voters that are required to put him on the ballot. The initial batch of signatures his campaign submitted this month were invalidated due to the absence of a declared vice presidential candidate, which is required by law.
A presidential candidate’s pick for VP is important information, especially for independent candidates who lack the committees and policy platforms of established political parties. Knowing who presidential candidates are aligning themselves with shines light on their policy preferences, character and judgment.
It’s also the law.
Subsections 1 and 2 of Section 298.109 of the Nevada revised statutes (NRS) describe the requirements for an independent candidate to qualify for the ballot in Nevada. They aren’t difficult to find, as they are located under a bold sub-section heading entitled “Nomination of independent candidates for president and vice president; challenge to candidacy.” Which is located immediately after a bold, all-caps section heading entitled “PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS.”
We googled the phrase “requirements for getting on the ballot in Nevada as an independent candidate” and found the relevant statutes within three clicks. Yet somehow, an attorney like RFK Jr. and his team of political advisers couldn’t locate the relevant information.
Had they taken the job seriously enough to find the relevant sections of law, they would have realized that the petition requirements are minimal — less than 350 words.
Moreover, the requirement that the petition specify a candidate for vice president can be found in the very first sentence of the statute.
“A person who desires to be an independent candidate for the office of president of the United States must, not later than 5 p.m. on the second Friday in August in each year in which a presidential election is to be held, pay a filing fee of $250 and file with the secretary of state a declaration of candidacy and a petition of candidacy, in which the person must also designate a nominee for vice president” (emphasis added).
The language couldn’t really be any clearer.
RFK Jr. still has time to remedy the situation and appear on Nevada’s ballot. After all, he declared his spectacularly unqualified running mate Tuesday: billionaire lawyer Nicole Shanahan.
Naming Shanahan should by itself disqualify Kennedy. Nothing about the admittedly telegenic ex-wife of Google founder Sergey Brin, or the source of her billions, would prepare her to assume the presidency in the event Kennedy were to die in office. His decision is grotesque, insulting and displays his shallowness. Her acceptance is no better.
But like so many of the conspiratorial buffoons who seem to be ever-present in today’s politics, RFK Jr. doesn’t care about the law or making good decisions. Although he’s the son of a former U.S. attorney general, he doesn’t think the law should apply to him the way that it applies to the rest of us as we try to navigate the complexities of government bureaucracy when we want to do things like run for office, open a small business or remodel our home.
Instead of accepting responsibility for his failure to investigate the legal requirements for appearing on the ballot, he instead threatened to file a lawsuit against the state of Nevada and the taxpayers whom he is asking to support him. He claims a conspiracy of Democrats in the secretary of state’s office is trying to keep him off the ballot.
Like Trump, RFK Jr. long ago traded facts, reality and the rule of law for the victimhood of vast conspiracies that ignore his questionable competence.
The two men’s lies about COVID vaccines and crackpot COVID cures contributed to the deaths of countless Americans.
Kennedy continues to threaten the lives of American children even to this day, peddling disinformation about childhood MMR vaccines long proven safe and effective.Meanwhile, the number of cases of measles recorded in the U.S. during the first three months of 2024 has already surpassed the total number of cases for all of 2023. The outbreak has also spread to 17 states — including Nevada’s neighbors in California and Arizona, increasing the odds that the highly contagious disease will find its way to the Silver State.
As if all that weren’t enough, RFK Jr. has used and abused the legacy of dead children to prop up his conspiracy theories.
In August 2022, Braden Fahey, a 12-year-old boy, died suddenly due to a malformed blood vessel in his brain.Just months later, Braden’s parents learned that their son’s face adorned the cover of a new conspiracy-laden book for which RFK Jr. wrote the foreword.
Despite never asking Braden’s parents to use his name or image, they can be found throughout the book, used repeatedly to paint a conspiratorial picture of a young boy whose life was cut short by the COVID vaccine — a vaccine Braden never received. Meanwhile, no mention was ever made of the malformed blood vessel that led to Braden’s death.
RFK Jr. didn’t care about the grieving parents of a recently deceased child, he just wanted a face to put to his lies. It was politics and profit at its worst.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a liar and conspiracy theorist who preys on tragedy for personal ambition. Now he is trying to prey on Nevadans by threatening to sue us for nothing more than asking him to abide by our laws while operating within our state — a simple request, yet apparently too much for him.
State officials should not allow RFK Jr. to skirt the law and appear on the ballot without meeting our legal requirements. If he eventually satisfies the legal requirements and appears on the ballot, voters should remember his disdain for our people and our laws, his willingness to put the lives of children at risk and his comfort with abusing the legacy of those lost to achieve his own political ends.
