RFK Jr. uses major cash infusion from his running mate to fund ballot access efforts

A major cash infusion from his running mate helped Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s longshot presidential campaign substantially ramp up spending on ballot access in April.

An $8 million donation from Silicon Valley lawyer Nicole Shanahan helped the Kennedy campaign spend $6.5 million in the month of April, up nearly 50 percent from March. A firm that works on ballot access accounted for more than one third of the monthly expenditures, according to a campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission Friday evening.

The Kennedy campaign paid more than $2.2 million to Accelevate 2020 LLC, a Texas-based firm that works on ballot access and campaign services that has previously done work for presidential candidates of both parties, according to FEC records.

The campaign also spent more than $60,000 on consulting with other vendors related to getting on the ballot and reported paying ballot access filing fees in Illinois and Oklahoma, the latter of which became the fifth state where he is officially on the ballot earlier this month.

Other major expense categories for Kennedy’s campaign in April included $404,000 paid to the firm of Gavin de Becker for security services, and $398,000 spent on online advertising.

But while Kennedy’s latest campaign finance report indicated serious efforts to get on the ballot, it showed other potential warning signs, including dwindling small-dollar donations.

Kennedy’s campaign received $843,000 from unitemized donors — those giving less than $200 — in April, down from $1.3 million from such donors in March. It was the lowest unitemized donor total for him for any month this calendar year.

Small donor money may not be necessary to fund Kennedy’s campaign if Shanahan keeps cutting big checks. But funds from donors giving only a little are also one gauge of grassroots support.