A Political Action Committee (PAC) in support of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said it will invest heavily in his election campaign, as Mr. Kennedy’s bid continues to gain traction.
The news emerged after Tony Lyons, co-founder of the super PAC American Values 2024, announced plans on March 14 to spend upwards of $10 million on Mr. Kennedy’s presidential bid.
“We probably wind up spending $10 million. That would be the least we would spend,” Mr. Lyons told The Hill in an interview, adding the money will mostly be used to clarify Mr. Kennedy’s positions and record in the run-up to the election.
The investment will involve the creation of multiple infomercials, which the super PAC will be releasing in order to give voters a true and authentic picture of Mr. Kennedy’s record, views, and intentions, he said..
The infomercials will vary in length between 30 seconds and three minutes. A 30-minute long infomercial is planned for a later date.
Mr. Lyons said that once people recognize what values Mr. Kennedy stands for, they will want him to represent the country.
“I believe the American public, if they recognize what he’s done and when they learn who he really is, will be grateful and will really believe that he’s exactly the kind of president that we need at this time,” Mr. Lyons told The Hill.
According to Mr. Lyons, if the campaign raises sufficient funds, the super PAC would be open to spending up to $20 million.
American Values 2024 said earlier in the week that they’ve collected enough signatures for ballot access across multiple states, and that the group would stop collecting signatures on Mr. Kennedy’s behalf in some other states.
A sufficient amount of signatures were collected to have Mr. Kennedy on the ballot in Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, and South Carolina, as well as in Utah, New Hampshire, Nevada, and Hawaii. The collection of signatures has also started in Texas.
According to Mr. Lyons, American voters are crying out for independent candidates on the ballot.
“Given the campaign’s success, we are no longer collecting signatures in any additional states, and will continue to fight the [Democratic National Committee] or [Republican National Committee] when they try to interfere with the constitutional rights of American voters who overwhelmingly want independent candidates on the ballot,” a social media post by Mr. Lyons stated on March 11.
Mr. Kennedy, however, is also up against some very high thresholds in bigger states. This could potentially lead him to join the Libertarian Party in the event of his not qualifying as an independent in those states, The Hill previously reported.
The latest Federal Election Commission filings in February show that American Values 2024 currently has a budget of more than $23 million in cash, of which it spent almost $1.5 million in January.
“So part of our job is going to be to explain to the American public that actually, Bobby Kennedy is the person who they need to fight for them because the people in Washington now are not fighting for that,” Mr. Lyons said.
