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RFK Jr. and Donald Trump
The Michigan Supreme Court on Monday reversed a lower court ruling and said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can remain on the Michigan ballot, which Secretary of State had pushed for. The decision could negatively impact Donald Trump in a tight race, says a pollster.
"I think it will not make the Trump campaign very happy today," said pollster Ed Sarpolus, executive director of Target Insyght in Lansing.
The ruling comes after RFK Jr. decided to drop out of the race as a candidate for the Natural Law Party and endorse Trump. He wanted to remove his name to clear up any confusion or temptation for people to vote for him instead of Trump.
Sarpolus said RFK Jr. was more likely to take away Trump votes than ones for Kamala Harris.
"The trouble is, they'll see his name on the ballot and maybe forget that he's promoting Trump" and vote for him, Sarpolus said.
RFK Jr. recently posted this on his website: "A VOTE FOR TRUMP IS A VOTE FOR KENNEDY."
The Michigan Court of Appeals on Friday reversed a lower court ruling and said RFK Jr.'s name should be removed from the ballot. But Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson successfully appealed to the state Supreme Court, which ruled that Kennedy “has not shown an entitlement to this extraordinary relief” to have his name removed. New ballots would have had to be printed shortly before they're were to be mailed out to voters.
The Supreme Court also ruled Monday that third-party candidate Cornel West's name can remain on the ballot. The court refused to consider a challenge to block West from the ballot.
Sarpolus said that's likely to have minimal impact on the race, with West getting votes from people who had no intention of voting for Trump or Harris.
He said West's support is very minimal and his campaign had very little funding to change that.
"I don't see any polls showing him doing much."
