Robert F. Kennedy Jr. qualifies for ballot in California

Independent presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has qualified for the ballot in California, his campaign announced on Monday, marking the third official state the dark-horse qualified for.

The long-shot Independent and his running mate Nicole Shanahan have qualified for ballots in Michigan and Utah so far, but they have also met the ballot signature threshold in New Hampshire, Nevada, Hawaii, North Carolina, Idaho, Nebraska and Iowa.

Kennedy said they met the criteria to appear in the Golden state after securing the support of the American Independent Party (AIP) of California. The party was previously a party that supported segregation, the candidate noted, but it has since had a "rebirth." Kennedy's campaign said it filed the official paperwork with the California Secretary of State's office on Monday, The Hill reported.

“It’s been reborn as a party that represents not bigotry and hatred, but rather compassion and unity and idealism and common sense,” Kennedy said in his announcement video. “When they learned about my candidacy, they had just drafted a new charter for their reborn party where they could use their battle line for good for helping independent candidates to unite America without being blocked by the two-party duopoly.”

Kennedy is considered a potential "spoiler candidate" for both President Joe Biden, and former President Donald Trump, but Democrats have expressed more concern over the candidate since he was initially a part of the Democratic Party. Although Kennedy is hoping to appear on the ballot in all 50 states, he only needs to sway enough voters in a couple of swing states, like Michigan, to do damage to one of the other candidates' chances. 

A polling aggregation from The Hill showed Trump and Biden neck-and-neck when Kennedy is considered. Trump has 42% of the vote, Biden has nearly 41% of the vote, and Kennedy has 8.5% as of Monday.