Will Robert F. Kennedy Be Colorado's Libertarian Candidate, or Stay Independent?

Who will appear on Colorado's November ballot as the Libertarian Party's candidate for president? At this point, nobody really knows.

Earlier this month, the Libertarian Party of Colorado decided to forgo the national Libertarian Party's official candidate, Chase Oliver, in favor of putting Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who'd visited Colorado in May, as the Libertarian candidate on the Colorado ballot. But on July 24, Oliver's campaign office sent this message to Westword: "The Colorado Department of State has officially confirmed Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat as the Libertarian Party's nominees for President and Vice President."

According to the Colorado Secretary of State's Office, that's not true.

"It is not correct to say that they have been confirmed as the Libertarian Party’s nominees," says Jack Todd, spokesman for the Secretary of State, "as nothing is final." And it won't be until September 9, when the ballot is certified. Candidates and parties have until September 6 to submit nomination paperwork; while the national Libertarian Party submitted its materials, the LPOC has yet to do the same...but it has time.

Meanwhile, the Kennedy campaign had submitted close to 30,000 signatures for RFK Jr. to appear as an independent candidate on Colorado's ballot; on August 1, the Colorado Secretary of State's office confirmed that "Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Nicole Shanahan, Unaffiliated candidates for President and Vice President of the United States, have submitted the required number of signatures to appear on the November 5, 2024 General Election ballot."

"We are independents first," Amaryllis Kennedy, campaign manager for RFK Jr., said during a July 31 press conference. "If there are other parties out there who want to link arms and say, 'Hey, we want to take on corruption, too,' you don't tell them to get lost and go home. And if we're able to put RFK's name on the ballot with both independent and Libertarian Party of Colorado, we will be very proud to do so."

But in Colorado, a candidate's name can only appear on one line, so the Kennedy campaign may have to choose. And a party cannot have two different candidates, which means the Libertarians must settle on one name.

"Based on some of the communication we have received from both the state and national party, it now appears that there is an effort to withdraw these candidates as the Libertarian candidates in Colorado," Caleb Thornton, the Legal, Policy, and Rulemaking Manager for the Secretary of State's office, said in separate emails to LPCO's board and the national Libertarian Party chair last week. "Colorado law would allow a candidate to withdraw from nomination, but the law gives this right to withdraw only to the candidate themselves, not to the candidate’s party."

Since the LPOC has not yet submitted the official paperwork to make RFK its candidate, the Libertarian line is in limbo.

"It's going to stay how it is unless we get other information," says Amber Howell, media director for the Oliver campaign.

Last month, Jordan Marinovich, communications director for the LPCO, told Westword that while choosing to put RFK Jr. on the Colorado ballot rather than Oliver was "unprecedented...it's still within our discretion."

And is that the path that the LPCO still plans to take, given the recent notice from the Oliver campaign?

"We are aware of the response from the Secretary of State's Office and continue to pursue avenues to implement our 2024 electoral strategy," says Marinovich. "We will release more information per an official response at a later date."

We'll be waiting....