The rebellion of states has begun after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign and threw his support behind Donald Trump in the 10-or-so battleground states that Trump has to win in order to achieve an election victory.
In his campaign suspension speech, Kennedy urged his supporters in the other 40 states to still vote for him, but indicated that he is voluntarily removing his name from the ballot in about 10 battleground states, some of which are refusing to cooperate because they want Trump to lose.
"Our polling consistently showed that by staying on the ballot in the battleground states, I would likely hand the election over to the Democrats, with whom I disagree on the most existential issues," Kennedy said in his speech right before endorsing Trump.
The states of Colorado, Michigan and Wisconsin apparently heard that speech and decided no: we won't let Trump win. So, the three have made the following excuses as to why they will not be removing Kennedy's name from their respective ballots:
Colorado, which to be fair is not exactly a battleground state, simply refused to remove Kennedy's name from the state ballot for no apparent reason other than to hurt Trump.
Michigan says it is already too late for Kennedy to withdraw as the nominee of the Natural Law Party.
"Minor party candidates cannot withdraw, so his name will remain on the ballot in the November election," said Cheri Hardmon, a spokesperson for the Michigan Secretary of State.
"The Natural Law Party held their convention to select electors for Robert Kennedy Jr. They cannot meet at this point to select new electors since it's past the primary."
Wisconsin has an Elections Commission that voted 5-1 against removing Kennedy's name, citing a law that says "any person who files nomination papers and qualifies to appear on the ballot may not decline nomination."
(Related: Together with Kennedy, Trump will end the war on America's small farms and save the nation's food supply.)
What about North Carolina?
Nevada also tried to keep Kennedy's name on the ballot but was ultimately forced to remove it after his legal team came to an agreement with DNC lawyers.
As for Arizona and Pennsylvania, Kennedy successfully had his name removed from the ballots of both of these key battleground states. The same happened in Florida, Ohio and Texas. These three tend to lean in the "red" direction, but that shouldn't be taken for granted.
The next state to watch is North Carolina, which will have to reprint its ballots quickly if Kennedy decides to withdraw there. Thus far, there has been no request from the Kennedy campaign to remove his name from North Carolina's ballot.
"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been nominated by the We the People Party as that party's presidential candidate to be listed on the ballot," indicated North Carolina State Board of Elections public information officer Patrick Gannon.
"That party has not informed the State Board of any plans to change its nomination."
If the Kennedy campaign were to ask North Carolina to remove his name from the ballot this late in the game, Gannon said state officials would have to consider the practicality of reprinting ballots. As of this writing, about one-third of the state's 100 counties have already started their printing process.
Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy's running mate, has been vocal about how poorly Democrats are treating Kennedy.
"This is wild," she told Fox News host Jesse Watters. "I'm asking myself what happened to the party of when they go low, we go high 'cause right now they're just going lower and lower and lower."
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