Democratic National Committee On Friday given The Federal Election Commission’s complaint against independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign and an allied super PAC alleges the campaign improperly benefited from the super PAC’s work to qualify it to vote in state elections.
Kennedy-aligned super PAC American Values 2024 announced late last year that it would make an eight-figure investment to help the Kennedy campaign’s signature-gathering efforts. Independent candidates must collect petition signatures to appear on the general election ballot in many states.
Kennedy has so far only qualified for the Utah ballot, but American Values 2024 has begun recruiting signature vendors in early 2024 in key battleground states. And just last week, he announced that he would fund Kennedy’s ballot efforts for five years. additional states.
According to the DNC complaint, this is an illegal contribution from American Values 2024 to Kennedy’s campaign “in violation of federal law.”
DNC legal counsel Bob Lenhard said in a call Friday announcing the FEC complaint that Kennedy’s campaign “is in the process of accepting a $15 million illegal in-kind contribution in coordination with efforts to get him on the ballot.”
“Instead of doing this hard work themselves, using money raised against the candidate’s contribution limits, the campaign is taking a shortcut and outsourcing another key campaign function to a super PAC,” Lenhard said.
American Values 2024 co-chair Tony Lyons responded in a statement, saying, “The DNC wants to deprive millions of people of their basic constitutional right to vote in a ruthless attack on democracy.
“This FEC complaint is nothing more than a desperate DNC tactic to defame Kennedy, smear him and drain campaign funds,” Lyons continued. “The American people are too smart to be fooled by these political games.”
In his statement, Kennedy said the DNC “is in no position to demand morality from anyone — they refused the primary and have worked against the will of the people in the last few elections.”
The biggest donors to American Values 2024 are big Trump donor Tim Mellon, who gave $15 million to the pro-Kennedy group in 2023, according to campaign finance records. Mellon also donated $10 million last year to MAGA Inc., a major super PAC supporting Trump, FEC filings show.
Gavin De Becker, who provided security for Kennedy, also donated more than $10 million to the super PAC, but the group returned some of that “bridge funding” that was not needed, Lyons told NBC News.
“He committed to continuing bridge funding until RFK Jr. was elected president,” Lyons said.