COLUMBUS, Ohio — All eyes are on the race to the White House, with Kamala Harris expected to replace Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee and face Donald Trump in November.
Now a third-party candidate could join them on Ohio’s ballot.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., running as a non-party candidate, has filed petitions to be on the state’s ballot in November, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office.
Next, the Board of Elections will have to verify the 13,000 of the mandatory 5,000 signatures the campaign has submitted to be on the ballot.
“Often it is hard to predict how a third-party candidate will affect things and I think this election is a great example,” said David Niven, a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati.
Niven predicts RFK Jr. could take some votes away from Trump.
“A month or two ago, you would have said he marginally hurt the Democrats versus the Republicans. But today I think RFK Jr. hurts the Republicans more than the Democrats, the dynamics of the race have changed as the candidates have changed but he has also gotten closer to Trump as time has gone by and headlines have recently shown he is considering endorsing Trump," he said.
Due to the closer similarities between Trump and Kennedy, Niven pointed out that some voters could lean either way.
"Those kinds of things underscore he is much more of an available alternative for a Trump-leaning voter than an available alternative for a Democratic-leaning voter,” Niven said.
Even so, Niven expects Trump to win Ohio in November.
“The problem for Democrats is demographics. The problem for Republicans is on many issues. Their ideas are not that popular so they really have to be careful about a message that doesn’t remind folks why they voted for reproductive rights in Ohio, that doesn’t remind folks that on issue after issue the voters are a lot more moderate than the candidates they vote for,” Niven said.
Ohioans have until Oct. 7 to register to vote.