Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has failed to qualify for next week’s first presidential debate, hosted by CNN, officially setting up a one-on-one showdown between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
CNN ran a story Thursday morning saying that the period for candidates who met the criteria for the June 27 debate in Atlanta ended just after midnight Eastern time, saying that “Biden and Trump met the constitutional, voting eligibility and polling standards.” A CNN spokesperson confirmed that Kennedy did not meet the qualifications.
Kennedy has missed the 15% threshold in at least four CNN-approved national polls and only reached that threshold in three before the deadline, and he also missed the network’s polling threshold, which requires a candidate to secure enough states to win 270 electoral votes — a major challenge for third parties at this point in the election cycle.
Kennedy is currently on the ballot in 10 states, but is stuck in the confirmation or application phase in several others, according to an NBC News analysis.
Kennedy’s absence from the stage next week will be a blow to his campaign as he tries to gain an advantage over the presumptive major party nominees.
The Kennedy campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission last month against CNN and the Biden and Trump campaigns, alleging that they were unlawful in the way they conducted the June 27 presidential debate. Stephanie Speer, a spokeswoman for the Kennedy campaign, said further legal action was “under consideration” ahead of the debate.
“President Trump has repeatedly said he has no problem debating RFK Jr. and believes any candidate who is eligible to vote should have the right to make his case to the American electorate,” Caroline Leavitt, national spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said in a statement Thursday. “Knowing that RFK Jr. is a far-left winger who would garner more votes from Biden than from President Trump, Joe Biden and the Democratic Party are using financial and legal means to block RFK from voting.”
Kennedy has already used his possible absence from the stage to argue the election is rigged against political outsiders, and his campaign has booked $100,000 in television ads for the day of the debate.
Kennedy still has a chance to compete in the September 10 debate hosted by ABC News, which will have the same voting access and voting criteria as the CNN debate, but it is unclear when the voting period will open, which will also give Kennedy additional time to secure more voting access across the country.
