The Center for Competitive Democracy, along with the More Voter Choice Fund and American Values 2024, has sent a letter to CNN arguing that excluding independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the June 27 presidential debate would violate campaign finance laws. The letter contends that CNN’s criteria for participation, which requires candidates to be on enough ballots to reach 270 electoral votes by June 20, unfairly disqualifies Kennedy when both major party candidates, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, will not be on any state ballots by that date. The advocates claim that the guidelines set by CNN are subjective and discriminatory against third-party candidates.
The letter also raises concerns about CNN’s alleged compliance with requests from the Biden and Trump campaigns to exclude Kennedy from the debates. The advocates argue that such actions would result in illegal contributions and expenditures benefiting the major party candidates. CNN is accused of adopting a polling threshold of 15 percent, which the authors of the letter consider to be too high. They suggest that a more reasonable threshold, such as 5 percent, would be more inclusive and representative of a diverse range of views.
Kennedy himself has stated that his campaign has gathered enough signatures to potentially appear on ballots totaling 343 electoral votes. The advocates assert that CNN’s criteria may have been designed to specifically eliminate third-party candidates who could potentially disrupt the debates for Trump and Biden. They stress the importance of allowing third-party and independent candidates who meet a reasonable threshold to participate in debates in order to provide voters with a wider range of perspectives.
According to the letter, CNN’s criteria for the debates have been influenced by assurances given to the Biden and Trump campaigns that no other candidates would participate. The advocates argue that this arrangement unfairly favors the major party candidates and deprives the public of the opportunity to hear from alternative voices. The letter also criticizes CNN for adopting the same 15 percent polling threshold used by the Commission of Presidential Debates, suggesting that this standard is exclusionary and hinders the democratic process.
In response to CNN’s reported promises to exclude Kennedy from the debates, the Center for Competitive Democracy’s founder, Oliver Hall, condemned the network’s criteria as a “sham” orchestrated to benefit the Biden and Trump campaigns. The advocates have called on CNN to reconsider its guidelines and to adopt more inclusive measures that would allow a broader range of candidates to participate in the debates. A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll revealed that 71 percent of American voters support the inclusion of third-party and independent candidates who meet a certain threshold, with Kennedy specifically named as an example.
