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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mulls running for president as Libertarian as he struggles with ballot access
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he is looking into running for president as a Libertarian, since he still faces significant hurdles in gaining ballot access in the vast majority of states as an independent candidate.
“That’s something that we’re looking at,” he told CNN’s Michael Smerconish Monday, in response to a question about whether he’d consider a Libertarian bid.
“We have a really good relationship with Libertarian Party,” Kennedy added.
Kennedy, who began his pursuit of the presidency as a Democrat early last year and then left the party to run as an independent, noted that at the end of February he’ll be addressing California’s Libertarian Party convention.
“We are talking to Libertarian Party. I feel very comfortable with most of the values of the Libertarian Party…and like I say, we have good relationships. I’m talking regularly to Libertarian groups. So, we’ll continue to do those talks,” Kennedy said.
Smerconish played a a podcast interview from last fall with the head of the Libertarian Party, Angela McArdle. She, too, said the party and Kennedy had been having “a lot of good conversations” and are “on good terms.”
“I respect his decision to want to go independent. But Libertarians really admire the strong position against mandates and lockdowns, and so we’re going to stay on friendly terms and see what happens,” McArdle said on the podcast.
Kennedy has qualified for the ballot in only one state so far, Utah. He has also met the signature threshold in New Hampshire but hasn’t filed because his campaign is still finalizing its paperwork.
An individual who wants to run for president essentially has two avenues to ballot access — running as an independent candidate or as the nominee of a party. The two major political parties have presidential ballot lines in all 50 states, but other parties must collect signatures and meet individual state ballot access requirements. The Libertarian Party succeeded in obtaining a ballot line in all 50 states in both 2016 and 2020, but it’s not clear whether it has achieved full ballot access for 2024 yet.
In some cases, the number of signatures required may be lower for a party than it is for independent candidates seeking ballot access. With this in mind, earlier this month, Kennedy’s campaign filed paperwork to create a new political party called “We the people” in California, Delaware, Hawaii, Mississippi and North Carolina. In Texas, the campaign created the “Texas Independence Party” as a way to lower the signature threshold.
“The number of signatures needed to get Kennedy on the ballot in every state has been reduced by about 330,000, a third of the total needed nationwide” the campaign said in a press release in Jan. The number was originally about 1 million nationwide.
“We have our own political party now in six states, which have rules that give us an advantage to have our own political party,” Kennedy said.
However, while it’s true the number of signatures required may be lower for new parties than for independent candidates, in some cases, winning ballot access will be more difficult. That is, instead of collecting signatures on a petition, some states, like California and Delaware, require a certain number of voters to register for the “We the People Party” to get Kennedy on the ballot.
In California, the Kennedy campaign will need to convince 75,000 voters to register for his “We The People” party. As an independent candidate, he would have had to collect 219,403 signatures to get on the ballot. In Delaware, the campaign will need to win over 760 voters and get them to register for Kennedy’s new party. An independent bid would require 7,676 signatures.
There were no injuries after a Southwest flight carrying passengers was struck by gunfire on the tarmac of Dallas Love Field Friday night, authorities said.
Southwest Airlines Flight 2494 was preparing for departure to Indianapolis when “a bullet apparently struck the right side of the aircraft under the flight deck,” a Southwest spokesperson told CBS News in a statement.
The airline said no one was hurt. A spokesperson for Dallas Love Field said in an email that the aircraft returned to its gate after sustaining damage from a “security incident” and the passengers deplaned. The runway was also temporarily closed, but has since reopened.
Dallas police confirmed the incident, saying that officers responded to reports of gunfire at 9:48 p.m. local time, arriving to find that the aircraft had been struck.
No further details were provided on the circumstances of the incident or what was the potential source of the gunfire. It’s unclear how many people were aboard the jet at the time, or how much damage the aircraft sustained.
In its own statement provided to CBS News, the Federal Aviation Administration said that the plane “was reportedly struck by gunfire near the cockpit.”
Dallas police are leading the investigation into the incident.
Earlier this week, gunfire amid ongoing gang violence struck three planes that were either landing or departing Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince. The shootings prompted the FAA to issue a 30-day ban on U.S. airlines flying to Haiti.
Social media star Jake Paul defeated boxing legend Mike Tyson in a highly anticipated fight with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders. The Friday night win for the YouTuber-turned-pro-boxer was streamed on Netflix from the home of the Dallas Cowboys in Texas.
Paul defeated Tyson by an unanimous decision after the two fighters went eight full rounds.
Fight night for the 58-year-old Tyson and 27-year-old Paul came following doubts over whether it would happen at all. The fight was originally scheduled for July, but was postponed after the former heavyweight champion experienced an ulcer flare-up on a plane in May.
A different kind of flare-up happened during the official weigh-in Thursday with Tyson slapping Paul in the face. Tyson later told the New York Post that Paul had stepped on his toe when the two were toe to toe onstage.
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What is Jake Paul’s fight record?
With the win, Paul’s record improved to 11-1.
Was Jake Paul predicted to win?
Oddsmakers had Paul as the slight favorite to win. Former heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua also went with Paul.
How much prize money does Jake Paul win?
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, according to DraftKings Network and other online sources.
Promoters didn’t reveal the payouts ahead of the bout. Paul is a co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, which produced the fight.
Does Mike Tyson still get paid?
Tyson was expected to take home around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
Tyson entered professional boxing in 1985 and became the youngest heavyweight champion in history a year later. After serving time for a rape conviction in the 1990s, Tyson won the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association titles.
He retired from boxing in 2005 and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2011. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“He like put on another 20 pounds from when I fought him, so he’s more bigger and he’s more dangerous because more size, more power, so it’s going to be a tough one for Jake to climb,” Jones told CBS News ahead of the fight.
Anne Marie Lee and
contributed to this report.
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