Kennedy Jr. campaign surpasses 1 million signatures nationwide

“51 mazes laced with minefields,” is how Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s senior campaign adviser Nick Brana describes getting Kennedy on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Brana serves as a ballot access adviser to the campaign. He spoke at a virtual press briefing on Wednesday afternoon regarding the campaign’s ballot access progress.

At the briefing, Brana was joined by several senior campaign staffers and the candidates.

The campaign highlighted their progress in attaining ballot access thus far, including collecting more than 1 million petition signatures nationwide.

Amaryllis Kennedy, who is Kennedy’s daughter-in-law and campaign chair, spoke about other campaign milestones, such as recruiting 100,000 volunteers nationwide and raising over $52 million that was not raised by the campaign committee, according to FEC filings from the campaign.

She described the Kennedy campaign’s challenges as “scaling a glass mountain.” She expressed excitement about the campaign’s progress.

“It makes me incredibly emotional to see the recap,” Kennedy said after a time-lapse video was played showing the campaign’s ballot access over time.

The campaign is confirmed to be on the ballot in 13 states, with their petitions currently being verified by state election officials in another 19, including Illinois. In Illinois, the Kennedy/Shanahan petition is currently under two separate objections imposed by Democratic Party operatives Joseph Duffy and Zach Koutsky. As of publication, the Illinois State Board of Elections would not confirm the status of those objections to Heartland Newsfeed.

The campaign has turned in signatures in 10 states with the verification process taking place in the coming weeks. The campaign’s petitions are being challenged in several states, including in Illinois. The petitions are being challenged mainly by each state’s Democratic parties, citing issues with petition signatures and how the documents were certified.

The Kennedy campaign did not return requests for comment about the challenge in Illinois. The campaign has successfully defeated every legal challenge thus far in other states.

Paul Rossi, senior ballot access counsel to the campaign, criticized the Democratic Party for “crying up a storm” over then-nominee President Biden potentially not being on the ballot in Alabama and Ohio while challenging the Kennedy campaign’s petitions. Both states amended their election laws to ensure the Democratic nominee would be on the ballot.

Everyone on the call spoke of the difficulties independent and third-party candidates often face when trying to get ballot access, such as higher signature counts than candidates running in either major party. “We expect unfair treatment,” Independent vice presidential candidate Nicole Shanahan said during the call.

Editor-in-Chief Jake Leonard contributed to this report.

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Jacob Hamm

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Jacob Hamm covers a wide variety of topics across Central Illinois, such as protests, artistic and cultural events, local economic development, and the occasional column.

The Decatur, Ill. native is a 2023 graduate of Richland Community College (AA, Journalism) and a 2025 graduate of Eastern Illinois University (BA, Broadcast Journalism). He returned to Eastern Illinois in the fall of 2025 to pursue a Master's degree in Communication and Media Studies.

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