From New York Times, I'm Michael Barrow. This is the Daily.

Today, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tries to get on the presidential ballot in all 50

states, he's confronting fierce resistance from his rivals.

My colleague Rebecca Davis O'Brien has been reporting on the high stakes battle

playing out behind the scenes.

It's Monday, May 6th. Rebecca, when we last spoke with you, which was in the fall about what's really become your beat these days, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign. He had just made this very important

decision to drop out of the Democratic primary, which he decided he couldn't win, and run as an independent. But very

much unresolved at that moment was whether as an independent

candidate without the infrastructure of a major party,

he could really mount a serious campaign.

So what has happened since then? Right, so you might remember

that when Kennedy began his campaign... I've come here today to announce my

candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

Back in April of 2023, he was really sort of a protest candidate.

They close every business in this country for a year. candidate. with the pandemic response. And as we all now recognize the COVID vaccines were neither safe nor effective.

His skepticism of the COVID vaccine, his skepticism about childhood vaccination schedules.

I can make the argument that President Biden is a much worse threat to democracy.

His dissatisfaction with how President Biden had done his job, but it was really more of a niche

audience.

And when he left the Democratic Party and decided to run as an independent in October, he had to create a bigger

audience for himself, a bigger platform, and stake out kind of a broader claim on

the American electorate. And how did you do that?

...