PARTY FAVORS — Roughly a year ago, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched a long shot bid for the White House as a Democrat. Six months later, he dropped his Democratic primary challenge and announced he’d run as an independent. Since then, Kennedy’s played footsie with the Libertarian Party, secured a spot on Michigan’s ballot as the nominee of the Natural Law Party and, on Monday, announced he would be on the California presidential ballot on the American Independent Party line. His ramble through the third-party swamps of American politics is enabled by his farrago of ideological views — ranging from pure conspiracy theory to wellness culture dogma — but it’s also born out of strategic necessity. Democratic-aligned groups have been fighting Kennedy’s candidacy, not only in messaging but in legal challenges to disqualify him from the ballot. Both parties fear Kennedy’s presence on the ballot, particularly in the swing states where he could serve as a spoiler candidate. As a nominally independent candidate — as opposed to a major-party candidate — Kennedy has to collect thousands of signatures in every state to earn a spot on the November ballot alongside Joe Biden and Donald Trump. It can be an expensive, time-consuming and grueling process — unless, of course, Kennedy takes advantage of loopholes designed to ease the process, such as joining pre-existing parties that already have a line on the ballot. That’s exactly what Kennedy did in Michigan and California. While Kennedy ended his flirtations with the Libertarian Party some time ago, in Michigan he joined forces with the Natural Law Party, which is something of a zombie party without much of an active presence in state politics. Founded in the 1990s on theories of transcendental meditation, the party once had a small national presence. But it has withered in recent decades. The Michigan chapter of the Natural Law Party has succeeded in outliving the national party — which folded in 2004 — and its main goal is simply to get enough votes each election to qualify for a ballot line in the next one. “Why Bother With Signatures?” the Natural Law Party asks on its website. “We Can Put You On The Ballot!” Indeed, the party saved Kennedy the time and expense of collecting 12,000 signatures, enabling his campaign to focus on ballot access battles elsewhere. California is a similar story, even if the party vessel Kennedy is utilizing there has a longer — and considerably more checkered — history than the Natural Law Party. Founded in 1967, the American Independent Party has a history of nominating segregationists and hard-right populist conservatives. It helped former Alabama Gov. George Wallace get on the ballot in the 1968 presidential election when he ran as a populist, pro-segregation candidate. In 1972, the AIP nominee was California Congressman John Schmitz, a John Birch Society member; in 1976, it was former segregationist Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox. In 2016, AIP also nominated Donald Trump on its California ballot line — despite the fact that Trump didn’t seek the nomination and his campaign distanced itself from the AIP nomination. Recognizing the AIP’s radioactive history, in a nearly six-minute video announcing the move, Kennedy called Wallace “a bigoted, segregationist supporter, who was antithetical to everything my father believed in.” But the statement belied a more complicated personal history with — and assessment of — Wallace. Wallace regularly challenged the candidate’s father, Robert F. Kennedy Sr., when he served as attorney general, and Alabama was a hot spot for police violence against civil rights demonstrators and opposition to public school integration. But after being shot on the campaign trail in 1972, Wallace publicly reversed his racist stances and sought forgiveness from many civil rights leaders. Kennedy Jr. interviewed the former governor several times for a college thesis that became a book in 1978. In an article about the book deal, Kennedy said, “I found Governor Wallace very pleasant personally … He has several admirable qualities. He is seriously concerned about states’ rights, not racism.” The book — a biography of Judge Frank M. Johnson, a Wallace opponent and famed federal court judge whose landmark rulings helped end segregation and enforce voting rights across the South— included defenses of Wallace’s actions. According to a 2015 biography of Kennedy Jr., Kennedy also wrestled with the question of Boston’s support for Wallace during the 1972 and 1976 Democratic primaries, noting that “good Irish citizens of South Boston” backed Wallace’s campaign in surprising numbers, noting that they were “our people … at least my family always considered them thus.” As late as 2001, in a diary entry that was leaked to the New York Post years later, Kennedy wrote, “Al Sharpton has done more damage to the black cause than George Wallace.” In his video announcement Monday announcing the AIP nomination, Kennedy said the party had gone through a “rebirth” and had a new charter, one that “can use its independent ballot line for good.” Kennedy’s third-party odyssey has made for an unusual campaign — the storied Democratic family’s name on the American Independent or Natural Law Party line seems out of place. Kennedy doesn’t seem to care though. His family has already disavowed his campaign. He’s running a non-traditional campaign marked by unconventional stances. Against that backdrop, the AIP nomination shouldn’t come as a surprise. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at bgibson@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @brittanyagibson.
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