Here’s how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could make the first debate stage under stringent Biden-Trump rules

By JONATHAN J. COOPER
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — To make the first debate stage, Robert F. Kennedy has to secure a ballot place in at least a dozen more states and improve his showing in national polls. And he has just one month to do it. That’s due to rules set by the presidential campaigns of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, who bypassed the nonpartisan debate commission. Kennedy has already reached two of the four poll results he needs. But ballot access is his biggest hurdle. Adding up all the states that have confirmed he’s on the ballot or where he says he has eligibility totals 201 votes in the Electoral College. CNN is requiring that candidates be on the ballot in states adding up to 270 votes.