Robert Kennedy Jr. will be on the Texas ballot in 2024

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Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be on the Texas general election ballot this November.

The Texas Secretary of State’s office announced Thursday afternoon that it had accepted Kennedy’s petition to appear on the statewide ballot with 122,513 valid signatures. Texas election code requires a petition to have at least 113,151 valid signatures.

State Democrats said Kennedy’s campaign did not have enough valid signatures and that his “attempt to flood the system with bad signatures is simply another example of his campaign’s disregard for the rules.”

Questions have been raised in other states about Kennedy’s signature gatherers and the use of deceptive tactics during signature collection. This push by state Democrats to keep Kennedy off the ballot also aligns with efforts by national Democrats to keep the independent candidate off state ballots as his campaign continues to try to gain ballot access in all 50 states.

Kennedy won about 9% of the vote nationally when the presidential duel was between President Biden and Donald Trump. In Texas, Kennedy had the support of 8% of voters, according to polls.

However, once Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee after Biden dropped out of the race, Kennedy’s support fell to 5% nationally. Kennedy has confirmed ballot access in 14 other states, but says she has access in about 29 more states.

Disclosure: The Texas Secretary of State has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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