Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is set to give Donald Trump a helping hand in an unlikely battleground state. According to The Daily Caller, Kennedy, who dropped out last month and endorsed the former president, will ask the state of Virginia to take his name off the ballot.
Recent polls have shown that the race between Harris and Trump in the Old Dominion is closer than expected.
As of Friday, the Virginia Department of Elections told the Caller that the Kennedy campaign had not requested that his name be removed from the ballot. Despite the reports, sources close to the campaign said Kennedy plans to remove his name from the Virginia ballot and is asking his supporters to vote for Trump. The sources were granted anonymity to discuss the campaign operations freely, writes The Daily Caller.
Though Virginia does not have a specific date for all of its ballots to be printed, Friday, Sept. 6 is the final day for candidates to qualify to make the state ballot, Angela Gaines, external affairs manager for the Virginia Department of Elections, told the Caller. Early voting begins in the state on Sept. 20.
Though sources told the Caller that Kennedy plans to remove his name from the ballot, at the time of publishing the Department of Elections had not indicated whether the former candidate had made a formal request.
A Virginia Trump campaign official told the Caller that if a candidate moves to pull their name after ballots have been printed, usually a sign will be posted in polling locations noting that the candidate has dropped out of the race. In that situation, voters would still be able to cast their vote for the dropped out candidate, the Virginia Trump official said.
In a bid to bolster Kamala Harris’s chances, Democrats in several battleground states have resisted efforts to remove the former independent candidate from the ballot, aiming to siphon votes away from Trump. In Michigan, for instance, Democratic official Jocelyn Benson has pushed to remove Cornell West from the ballot while insisting that Kennedy remains.
