上个月的一个周六，阿拉斯加独立党的几十名成员聚集在费尔班克斯举行两年一次的大会。阿拉斯加独立党是一个规模不大、基本上不为人知的政治团体，其主要目标是投票决定阿拉斯加是否脱离美国。
话题包括:是否提名小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪为总统候选人。
据参与讨论的共和党主席约翰·豪透露，该党最终拒绝了以独立身份参选的肯尼迪，此前一些直言不讳的成员表示，他们不想让他成为2024年的候选人。
“这是经过认真考虑的，”一家机械商店的老板豪告诉ABC新闻。
放弃肯尼迪的决定被视为对候选人的一个打击——“他们希望我们让他参加投票，”豪说——肯尼迪正在努力克服他作为主要外部候选人参加11月竞选计划的最大障碍:在全国各地参加投票。
通常情况下，独立候选人必须经历艰苦、昂贵的过程，从每个州的注册选民中收集数千个签名，才能有资格获得选票。
但是，如果一个政党已经在某个州获得了选票，并提名他们带领自己的选票前往该州，候选人就可以绕过这些要求。
肯尼迪在密歇根州和加利福尼亚州成功地运用了这一策略，从技术上讲，他将作为密歇根州自然法党和加利福尼亚州美国独立党的候选人出现在选票上。
此外，ABC新闻通过与全国十几个小党派的领导人交谈得知，他的竞选团队还与至少其他六个州的小党派进行了接触。(肯尼迪竞选团队没有回复对此事的置评请求，也没有回应该党领导人提供的细节。)
“竞选团队看到并认识到这些都是非常方便的工具，这是一个聪明的举动，他们这样做并不奇怪，”圣母大学选举法教授德里克·穆勒告诉美国广播公司新闻。
2024年竞选的早期民调显示，肯尼迪可能会在唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)和乔·拜登(Joe Biden)这两位领先候选人之间的激烈竞争中获得相当多的支持——如果肯尼迪参加投票的话。A新的ABC新闻/益普索成人调查在一场假想的五人选举中，肯尼迪获得了12%的选票，特朗普、拜登和另外两位候选人康奈尔·韦斯特(Cornel West)和吉尔·斯坦(Jill Stein)也获得了12%的选票。
肯尼迪的竞选团队声称目前已经在10个州进行了投票，包括密歇根州、内华达州和北卡罗来纳州的战场。三个州的选举办公室已经向ABC新闻证实肯尼迪在候选名单上。在其他州，官员们说他们还不能确认他的候选资格。
肯尼迪与小党派联合的策略既遭遇了挑战，也取得了成功。在某些情况下，比如阿拉斯加，政党拒绝了他，而在其他情况下，他们正积极与他的竞选团队讨论提名他。
他的竞选活动试图赢得科罗拉多州统一党的提名，但失败了，该党选择支持韦斯特，另一位独立候选人，该党主席蒂贾尼·科尔在一封电子邮件中告诉美国广播公司新闻。
联盟党，一个在明尼苏达州和南卡罗来纳州有投票权的全国性组织，更容易接受。
“全国联盟党领导层已经开始与竞选活动进行早期对话，寻求潜在的相互支持，”该党全国副主席菲尔·弗勒(Phil Feuhrer)在一封电子邮件中告诉美国广播公司新闻。
“如果我们与竞选活动和我们内部的全州领导团队达成完全一致，这将包括放在南卡罗来纳州的选票上，以及明尼苏达州独立联盟带头将竞选活动放在明尼苏达州的选票上，”Feuhrer补充说，使用该党明尼苏达州分部的官方名称。
“这些对话还很年轻，仍在进行中。”
肯尼迪的阵营也在与改革党谈判，据改革党领导人说，改革党在佛罗里达州和密西西比州有投票权。
该党佛罗里达州主席Jenniffer Desatoff告诉ABC新闻，他们“目前正在继续与肯尼迪竞选团队沟通。”(肯尼迪的竞选团队也联系了佛罗里达州的生态党，但被告知该党在总统竞选中没有选票线，该党主席卡拉·坎贝尔告诉ABC新闻。)
在其他地方，肯尼迪竞选团队两次联系宪法党的代表，该党在近十几个州有投票权，但该党和竞选团队从未能够联系上，该党发言人唐娜·伊万诺维奇(Donna Ivanovich)告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)。
与此同时，肯尼迪组建了自己的政党“我们人民”，以确保在几个州的选票，包括特拉华州、夏威夷和北卡罗来纳州。在这些州，与政党结盟的候选人投票的签名门槛低于独立候选人。
圣母大学选举法专家穆勒表示，尽管其他独立候选人与小党派结盟以获得选票-如韦斯特在2024年的竞选中也是如此-肯尼迪努力的广度和“协调性”非常突出。
“你通常看不到这种协调和努力，因为候选人通常不够认真，不足以影响所有这些不同州的所有政党，”他告诉美国广播公司新闻。
但一些观察家警告说，肯尼迪与小的、通常是小众的政党结盟，可能会承担这些政党有时错综复杂的历史带来的负担。
上个月提名甘乃迪的加州美国独立党曾在20世纪60年代支持阿拉巴马州前州长、臭名昭著的种族隔离主义者乔治·华莱士。
在宣布提名的视频中，肯尼迪承认该党过去对华莱士的支持，但表示“甚至在我出现之前，该党就已经获得了重生。”
“它已经重生为一个代表的不是偏见和仇恨，而是同情、团结、理想主义和常识的政党，”他说。
拉拢小党派的另一个问题是肯尼迪的信仰有时与他们的不一致。
阿拉斯加独立党主席豪告诉美国广播公司新闻，该党拒绝肯尼迪为党内提名人的成员担心他会同意他们的观点，即政府拥有的土地应该归还给阿拉斯加人。
但是肯尼迪在大会前几天赢得提名的机会可能已经破灭了，因为他在接受伯德的电台采访时未能赢得阿拉斯加独立党前主席鲍勃·伯德的支持。
伯德在信中写道:“印度人民党不会把RFK列入候选人名单。”一列采访结束后，让肯尼迪扮演一个局外人。
“我们的自由和繁荣必须来自我们自己，”伯德写道，“而不是来自48个州的骑士。”
RFK Jr.'s 'clever move' to help earn ballot access nationwide: Allying with little-known parties
One Saturday last month, several dozen members of the Alaskan Independence Party, a small, largely unknown political group whose primary goal is to put Alaskan secession from the United States to a vote, gathered in Fairbanks for their biennial convention.
Among the topics of conversation: whether to nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for president.
The party ultimately rejected Kennedy, who is running as an independent, after a few outspoken members said they did not want him atop their 2024 ticket, according to John Howe, the party's chairman, who was involved in the discussions.
"There was serious consideration," Howe, a machine shop owner, told ABC News.
The decision to pass on Kennedy was seen as a blow to the candidate -- "They wanted us to put him on the ballot," Howe said -- as Kennedy works to overcome the biggest obstacle to his plans to run as a major outside candidate in November: getting on the ballot across the country.
Typically, independent candidates must undergo the painstaking, expensive process of gathering thousands of signatures from registered voters in each state in order to qualify for ballot access.
But a candidate can bypass those requirements if a political party that already has ballot access in a given state nominates them to lead their ticket there.
Kennedy has successfully employed that strategy in Michigan and California, where he will technically appear on the ballot as the nominee for the Natural Law Party of Michigan and the American Independent Party of California.
What's more, his campaign has been in contact with minor parties in at least six other states, too, ABC News has learned through conversations with leaders in more than a dozen minor parties across the country. (The Kennedy campaign did not return requests for comment for this story or respond to the details that the party leaders provided.)
"As the campaign sees and recognizes that these are very convenient vessels out there, it's a clever move, and it's not a surprise they do it," Derek Muller, a University of Notre Dame professor specializing in election law, told ABC News.
Early polling of the 2024 race suggests Kennedy could take a notable amount of support in a close race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the two leading candidates -- if Kennedy makes it on the ballot. Anew ABC News/Ipsos survey of adultsfound Kennedy with 12% in a hypothetical five-way election with Trump, Biden and two other candidates, Cornel West and Jill Stein.
Kennedy's campaign claims to have made it on the ballot in 10 states so far, including the battlegrounds of Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina. Elections offices in three states have confirmed to ABC News that Kennedy is on the ballot. In other states, officials have said they can't yet confirm his candidacy.
Kennedy's strategy of linking with minor parties has encountered both challenges and success. In some cases, like Alaska, the parties have rejected him while in others, they are actively speaking with his campaign about nominating him.
His campaign tried and failed to earn the nomination of the Unity Party of Colorado, which chose instead to back West, another independent candidate, Tijani Cole, the party's chairman, told ABC News in an email.
The Alliance Party, a national group with ballot access in Minnesota and South Carolina, has been more receptive.
"National Alliance Party leadership has begun early conversations with the campaign for potential mutual support," Phil Feuhrer, the party's national co-vice chair, told ABC News in an email.
"If we reach full agreement with the campaign and our internal statewide leadership teams, it would include placement onto the South Carolina ballot as well as the Minnesota Independence-Alliance taking lead on placing the campaign onto the Minnesota ballot," Feuhrer added, using the official name of Minnesota's branch of the party.
"Those conversations are young and still ongoing."
Kennedy's camp is also in talks with the Reform Party, which has ballot access in Florida and Mississippi, according to party leaders.
Jenniffer Desatoff, the party's Florida chair, told ABC News they are "continuing communication with the Kennedy campaign at this time." (Kennedy's campaign also contacted the Ecology Party of Florida but was informed the party does not have a ballot line in the presidential race, the party's chair, Cara Campbell, told ABC News.)
Elsewhere, the Kennedy campaign twice reached out to representatives of the Constitution Party, which has ballot access in nearly a dozen states, but the party and the campaign were never able to connect, Donna Ivanovich, a spokeswoman for the party, told ABC News.
Meanwhile, Kennedy has formed a party of its own, We the People, to secure ballot access in several states, including in Delaware, Hawaii and North Carolina. In those states, the signature threshold to make the ballot is lower for candidates aligned with a party than for independent candidates.
Although other independent candidates ally with minor parties for ballot access -- like West is also doing in the 2024 race -- the breadth and "coordination" of Kennedy's effort stands out, said Muller, the Notre Dame election law expert.
"You usually don't see this kind of coordination and effort because the candidacies are usually not serious enough to make the outreach to all these parties in all these different states," he told ABC News.
But by aligning himself with small, often niche parties, Kennedy risks absorbing the burden of their sometimes checkered history, some observers warned.
The American Independent Party of California, which nominated Kennedy last month, had backed George Wallace, the former Alabama governor and notorious segregationist, in the 1960s.
In a video announcing his nomination, Kennedy acknowledged the party's past support for Wallace but said it "has had its own rebirth even before I came along."
"It's been reborn as a party that represents not bigotry and hatred but rather compassion, unity, idealism and common sense," he said.
Another problem with wooing minor parties is that Kennedy's beliefs sometimes don't align with theirs.
The members of the Alaskan Independence Party who rejected Kennedy as the party's nominee were wary he would agree with them on their view that government-owned land should be given back to Alaskans, Howe, the party chairman, told ABC News.
But Kennedy's chances at winning the nomination may have sunk days before the convention when he failed to win over the previous chair of the Alaskan Independence Party, Bob Bird, in a radio interview with Bird.
"The AIP will not be placing RFK on the ballot," Bird wrote ina columnafter the interview, casting Kennedy as an outsider.
"Our liberty and prosperity must come from within ourselves," Bird wrote, "not from a knight galloping in from the Lower 48."
