RFK Jr. to appear on FL presidential ballot after Reform Party gets recertified

The Reform Party has regained ballot status in Florida, meaning that its presidential nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will appear on the November ballot in the Sunshine State.

“We’re thrilled to give Floridians an independent option this November,” said Reform Party of Florida Chair Jenniffer Desatoff in a press release issued Friday. “We’ve been eagerly waiting to collaborate with the Kennedy campaign here in Florida and make history together.”

The national Reform Party nominated Kennedy to be its presidential candidate last month, and some media organizations immediately announced that meant he would be on the ballot in Florida.

But as the Phoenix has previously reported, the Florida Divisions of Elections cancelled the Reform Party’s filings as a minor political party last August. That news came after the elections office mailed a “Notice of Intent to Cancel” to the party for failing to comply with a 2022 annual public audit.

Reform Party officials said at that time that they would file paperwork to regain ballot status in Florida, and they said on Friday that they had received notice from the Division of Elections that their information “appears to comply with the requirements of Section 103.095, Florida Statutes, and the name of this minor party executive committee has been added to the minor party list.”

There has been much speculation about how Kennedy’s inclusion on state ballots might harm either President Joe Biden or Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump. A Fox News survey released Thursday night shows that if he is on the ballot in Florida, Kennedy Jr. would get 7% support if the election were held today.

That would appear to hurt Biden more in Florida, as a head-to-head matchup between Trump and Biden shows Trump up by 4 percentage points, but including not only Kennedy but also potential third-party candidates Jill Stein and Cornel West would push Trump’s lead over Biden to 7 percentage points.