RFK Jr. Asks Iowa Libertarian Candidates to Drop Out

According to Iowa Public Radio, Two house candidates and the Gubernatorial campaign are being challenged for not using full legal names on paperwork.

Iowa Libertarians could be kicked off the ballot this November if Republican efforts to challenge their candidacy succeed.

The Secretary of State’s Office received four challenges on Monday against Libertarian U.S. House candidates Marco Battaglia and Rick Stewart, and gubernatorial candidates Nicholas Gluba and Jules Cutler.

The objections were made over name discrepancies and missing filings, as well as insufficient valid signatures. They were brought by GOP voters, a Republican strategist and a GOP congressional staffer.

I independently verified some of the threats received by one of the candidates.

From the Libertarian Party press release:

According to the candidates’ own accounts and contemporaneous text messages, Republican operatives, including figures tied to U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn’s campaign and a Republican consulting firm, approached multiple Libertarian candidates and urged them to withdraw. The party says the candidates were variously offered inducements to quit, including the promise of personal face time in Washington, D.C. with a sitting member of the Trump administration, and were warned that refusing to withdraw would trigger “multiple challenges,” “additional legal action,” and Federal Election Commission complaints over their campaign filings.

The party says one Libertarian candidate also received calls and text messages from an individual purporting to be, and presenting himself as, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., urging him to abandon his race and endorse the Republican incumbent. The party says the number used appears to be that of a known associate of Secretary Kennedy. The Libertarian Party of Iowa is preserving the messages and call records as part of its documentation.

Readers may remember that RFK Jr. was involved in a scandal within the Libertarian Party last year where the party helped him raise money in a bid that ultimately assisted Donald Trump’s election efforts.

“Iowans of every background rolled up their sleeves and put these candidates on the ballot the right way, one signature at a time,” said Stephanie Berlin, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Iowa. “Now that we have earned our place fair and square, the Republican machine is trying to rip it away with bullying, bribes, and lawyers. It will not work. We are not going anywhere, and Iowa voters deserve a real choice.”

In 2024, Republicans challenged three Congressional candidates off the ballot over a technicality including Battaglia and Gluba.