When Doug Dern, chairman of the Natural Law Party of Michigan, received an email in January from a top strategist for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign, he sensed it could be a game-changer for his small political group .
Mr. Dern, a bankruptcy lawyer with a small practice outside Detroit, has spent 22 years almost single-handedly keeping the Natural Law Party on the ballot in Michigan. Each cycle, the party fields a handful of candidates in obscure state races to meet Michigan’s minimum voting requirements for minor parties.
“Keep access to the ballot,” Mr. Dern, 62, said in an interview Friday. “Because one day a candidate will emerge who is perfect for it. One day the third parties will be highly sought after.”
That day may have come.
By gaining access to the ballot in Michigan, a critical swing state in the 2024 election, Mr. Kennedy has injected new uncertainty into what is expected to be one of the most closely contested presidential elections in history. And he did this without having to collect a single signature, thereby avoiding a costly and laborious organizational effort, not to mention the possibility of having to fight those signatures in court.
Mr. Kennedy was formally nominated at a brief meeting held Wednesday morning at Mr. Dern’s law office. The only two participants were Mr. Dern and the party secretary.
Stefanie Spear, a spokeswoman for the Kennedy campaign, confirmed the campaign schedule, saying only that Mr. Kennedy and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, had been “duly nominated by the Natural Law Party.”
Third parties have drawn increasing attention in recent elections – and arguably left some behind – by allowing voters to express their dissatisfaction with major party candidates. Mr Kennedy expects a particularly good result in this election as polls show voters are extremely dissatisfied with their choices.
The Natural Law Party was founded in 1992 on a platform that included promoting transcendental meditation, responsible gun use, flat taxes and organic farming. But it has shrunk over the years. Before the 2024 election, Michigan was the only state representative.
These days, the party is more like an empty vessel for independent candidates, which Mr. Dern sees as a virtue in itself — a commitment to giving voters more choices. Every presidential election cycle, independent candidates turn to Mr. Dern to seek the party’s nomination in Michigan. In 2008, the spot went to Ralph Nader, who was considered a spoiler in the 2000 election.
Mr. Dern, who has worked as a stage magician and also has a law firm specializing in drunk-driving arrests, has made it his personal mission to keep the party active. “I just made sure, year after year, that people were on the ballot,” he said.
Natural law candidates, often including Mr. Dern himself, have run for secretary of state, seats on the Michigan Supreme Court, lieutenant governor, state university boards and others. Their mission is simple: secure enough votes in the general election to keep the party on the ballot for the next election cycle.
In Michigan, minor parties can retain voting access only if their leading candidate — for every statewide office on the ballot — receives a total vote equal to at least 1 percent of the total votes cast for the winner of the last state race.
In January, Cornel West’s independent presidential campaign reached out to Mr. Dern, he said. Under normal circumstances, Mr. Dern said, Mr. West would have been a great candidate for his party.
But the very next day a better offer arrived in the form of an email from Nicholas Brana, a campaign adviser to Mr. Kennedy – whose ideals, Mr. Dern noted, are consistent with much of the Natural Law Party’s original platform, including its emphases Health. Mr. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and scion of a storied political family, is also a leading figure in the anti-vaccination movement and a critic of the response to the Covid pandemic.
Party affiliation is crucial to Mr. Kennedy’s campaign. Independent candidates without any party support face a difficult path to get on the ballot in Michigan. They need between 12,000 and 60,000 signatures, including 100 signatures from at least half of the state’s congressional districts.
Candidates can skip all that if they are nominated by a smaller party with access to the ballot. All the party has to do is hold a convention, nominate a candidate and submit a certification to the Michigan Department of State. There are a few other legal niceties – for example, presidential candidates must submit a list of voters – but that’s basically all, Mr. Dern said.
On Wednesday morning, Mr. Dern said, he and Kathleen Oakford, the party’s secretary, held their convention in a low-rise office building in Hartland, Michigan.
The procedure was short.
“She came in, I took my gavel and banged it on my desk.” He called the state convention to order, they signed the proposed certificate of nomination, he closed the meeting: “And I went to Lansing and filed it. “
Since Mr. Kennedy’s campaign announced his place on the ballot, Mr. Dern has fielded calls and emails from other states and candidates. Mr. Dern said interest in the Natural Law Party is increasing again.
“There is even talk of reviving the national chapter,” he said.
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2024-04-20 09:03:32
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