Ballot Access Breaking News: Kennedy Officially on the Ballot in Texas

By Leah Watson, The Kennedy Beacon

On Monday, a massive crowd gathered at a rally inside Brazos Hall in Austin, Texas, to hear Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announce he had turned in his petition signatures and gained access to the Texas ballot. Many supporters were turned away when the venue reached capacity.

The Kennedy campaign had 45 days to collect 113,151 signatures in Texas. On the deadline, May 13, Kennedy turned in 245,572 signatures. “That’s more than any presidential candidacy in the history of Texas and in the history of our country,” said Kennedy at the celebration in Austin. Kennedy posted an image on X of 25 boxes packed full of signatures, depicting the onerous process of petitioning to gain access to the ballot.

In 2000, the signature requirement was only 56,000. The Libertarian and Green parties are on the ballot in Texas and won access with that lower requirement, but no new party or independent has been able to collect enough signatures for a statewide office in decades.

“The pundits, you heard them from the beginning of the campaign, saying it would be impossible to get on the ballot, and we got on the ballot in Texas. If you can get on in Texas, we can get on everywhere,” Kennedy announced at the Austin rally. 

Kennedy hinted that the next state where he and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, will appear on the ballot will be New York, another state with excessive ballot access requirements. 

“The DNC has done everything in their power to stop us… but we are going to get on the ballot in every state, and I want to thank all of you who are a part of this,” Kennedy said, as the crowd erupted in cheers. Texas has 40 electoral college votes, the second highest in the nation behind California at 54.

The Kennedy-Shanahan ticket is officially on the ballot in six states — California, Delaware, Michigan, Oklahoma, Utah, and now Texas. The campaign has also announced that they have collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in an additional eight states — Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Ohio. 

Signature collection drives are well underway in numerous other states across the country.