Now that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has picked Nicole Shanahan as his running mate, the independent presidential candidate is turning his attention to getting on the ballot. So far, he is only on in Utah, with a court fight underway in Nevada. The Kennedy campaign has announced it will begin gathering petition signatures to try to gain access in 19 additional states.
So far, West Virginia is not on the list. The Kennedy campaign would need 7,947 valid signatures, representing one percent of the total number of voters in the last presidential election in the state, to gain ballot access.
Historically, West Virginia voters have not been very enthusiastic about third party or independent presidential candidates. I looked back through all the presidential elections since 1960 in West Virginia and here are a few facts that stood out:
–There have been at least 29 third party or independent presidential candidates (not including write-ins) on the West Virginia General Election ballots in the 16 elections since 1960.
–The most successful runs by third party candidates were Ross Perot in 1992 with 16 percent, Perot again in 1996 with 11 percent, George Wallace in 1968 with 10 percent, and John Anderson in 1980 with four percent.
–Typically, third party candidates are in the low single digits. Libertarian Gary Johnson received three percent of the vote in 2016. Ralph Nader has been on the West Virginia ballot several times. His best run here was in 2000 when he received 1.7 percent of the vote.
–2000 was also the year of the most independent and third party candidates—five—including Nader and Pat Buchanan who ran under the Reform Party.
–The Mountain Party and the Libertarian Party are the only third parties to meet the qualifications for automatic access to the ballot. Independents and other third party candidates must gather the required number of valid signatures.
–So far, the only third party candidate on the ballot for 2024 is Jill Stein. She is running as the presidential candidate for the Green Party, but she has gained ballot access here by registering as the candidate for the Mountain Party. Candidates have until August 1st to qualify for the November ballot.
–Rapper Kanye West tried to gain access to the West Virginia ballot in 2020 as a presidential candidate. He fell a few hundred signatures short of the needed 7,144 valid signatures.
It is unknown if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will bring his campaign to West Virginia. The Kennedy name used to mean something here. John F. Kennedy’s Democratic Primary victory in 1960 propelled him to the nomination and Senator Ted Kennedy received 120,000 votes in the 1980 Democratic Primary, although he still lost to Jimmy Carter.
But those elections were a long time ago, and Republican Donald Trump runs stronger here than nearly every other state. If Kennedy does get on the ballot here, he will likely end up on the list with all the other independent and third party candidates from the last 60 years… as an election footnote.