The campaign to elect Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an independent candidate for president, recently announced it has signatures required to appear on ballots in every state. This news was released a few days before a New York Supreme Court Justice ruled Kennedy had falsely claimed that a friend’s house in Katonah, NY is his “place of residence” for purposes of qualifying on the New York State ballot. It is unclear at this moment how this ruling will affect Kenndy’s ballot eligibility in those other states where he also cited the New York address as his residence.
Perhaps equally disturbing is the manner in which Kennedy initially obtained access to the state ballots throughout the country. A new investigation by The Washington Spectator has revealed that the campaign, along with an associated PAC, has spent at least $8.9 million with four ballot access firms connected to a network of far-right, libertarian anti-tax groups.
According to federal election records as of June 30, 2024, the campaign and the PAC together spent about $7.8 million with Accelevate 2020, LLC and Public Appeal, LLC (which share a common owner); about $520,267 with another firm, Ballot Access Marketing, LLC; and $609,354 Free and Equal, Inc., with which the other firms share common history.
Christina Tobin of the Free and Equal Elections Foundation (Wikipedia)
Judge Richard Gardiner of Springfield, Virginia (Paul Morigi/Getty Images)
Christina Tobin with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Facebook)
Free and Equal Elections Foundation
Since 2008, Christina Tobin of Cambria, California, has led a non-profit group called the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, which has worked to secure ballot access for a variety of third party candidates.
The organization, which was revamped and relaunched by Tobin, was originally called The Foundation for Free Campaigns and Elections, and was founded in 1982 by conservative lawyer Richard Gardiner of Springfield, Virginia.
In the 1990’s, Gardiner served as Counsel for Legislative Affairs for the National Rifle Association. More recently, he made headlines in his current capacity as a judge with a controversial 2023 ruling that fertilized embryos are “property,” and could be considered “chattel,” basing his decision on slave code from 1849.
Jim Tobin (2021 obituary, Chicago Tribune); Christina Tobin with her father (Facebook)
Tobin’s activism began in 1998, at age 17, when her father, Jim Tobin, was denied ballot access while running as a Libertarian candidate for governor in Illinois. He ran on a platform that proposed a flat 10% tax. After a stint working as an auditor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, in 1976 he founded a group called National Taxpayers United of Illinois (later known as Taxpayers United of America) which advocated extreme anti-tax stances.
In 1977, libertarian economist Murray Rothbard said of Tobin, “a mighty property-tax strike has been sweeping the northern suburbs of Chicago…James Tobin, 31-year-old economist, bank auditor and Illinois NTUI head who was to become the principal leader of the tax rebellion, urged an outright tax strike.” Tobin ran for governor again in 2002, with assistance from his daughter Christina to gain ballot access, but the campaign was not successful.
Christina Tobin on X, October 9, 2023 (tweet)
The Kennedy organizations contracted with Free and Equal, Inc., a corporation formed by Christina Tobin, to assist with ballot access work. The firm’s website describes petition work it has done nearly exclusively on behalf of Libertarian, Green, and Republican candidates, with just one Democratic candidate listed.
The Free and Equal Inc. site also claims that “The Free & Equal Elections Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity and all donations are tax-deductible,” implying that the two entities are one in the same. But according to public records, the foundation has been registered as a nonprofit since 1983, while the current “Free and Equal, Inc.” corporation was formed in 2016. The Free and Equal Elections Foundation has not filed its mandatory IRS Form 990 tax return beyond fiscal year 2020.
Christina Tobin at the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association; with Mike Lindell of MyPillow (CSPOA, Facebook)
Tobin has also hosted and participated in several events featuring controversial far-right personalities, some connected to the January 6th insurrection. In April 2024, she was a featured speaker at the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association conference in Las Vegas. That organization, headed by Sheriff Richard Mack, has been widely cited as having been instrumental in the networks behind the 2020 election denial effort.
United We Stand Festival at SXSW, Austin, Texas; March 2022. (STiL Focus Media)
Center: Christopher Life, Christina Tobin; Bottom, 4th from right: Brittany Kaiser.
Promotional graphic for inaugural United We Stand Festival, May 10, 2014, Los Angeles. (Facebook)
United We Stand Festival
From 2013 to 2022, Tobin has organized an event series called the United We Stand Festival in various locations including Los Angeles, University of Colorado, Texas A&M, SXSW in Austin, and a 2019 tour through Indiana, Texas, Colorado, Oregon, and Tennessee.
The 2014 United We Stand Festival in Los Angeles brought together many faces familiar in later years, including presidential candidates Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Marianne Williamson, and Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich served as manager and consultant for Kennedy Jr.’s campaign until late 2023. Actor Russell Brand was included in a promotional video for the event, which also included several clips from RT (Russian state media), including from speaker and RT host Abby Martin. Foster and Kimberly Gamble, producers of the New Age, anarcho-libertarian film “Thrive” were featured speakers, and Richard Mack’s CSPOA was listed as a partner organization.
Kennedy endorsed United We Stand as recently as July 5, 2024.
United We Stand has also included appearances by G. Edward Griffin (John Birch Society; Council for National Policy), author of the anti-Federal Reserve conspiracy-themed book The Creature from Jekyll Island, QAnon promoter Sean Stone (son of director Oliver Stone), former child actor and cryptocurrency promoter Brock Pierce, and Russia-aligned podcaster Lee Camp. A preference for Russian foreign policy and disgust with both the Republican and Democratic parties are persistent themes for the events.
Hosts of the INC 2023 event. (inc23.us archived)
Independent National Union
More recently, Christopher Life, a friend of Tobin’s, launched the Independent National Union, which hosted its inaugural INC (Independent National Convention) in April, 2023 in Austin, Texas. Life, whose given name is Cory Tanner Glazier, markets INC events as a smaller version of the Democratic or Republican party conventions for independent-minded voters.
In practice, INC events have relied heavily on United We Stand for speakers and content. That list includes perennial presidential candidates Tulsi Gabbard and Dennis Kucinich, Libertarian party chair Angela McArdle, in addition to other notables from Kennedy’s entourage, including People’s Party founder Nick Brana, and ballot access expert Trent Pool. Pool also served as a co-host for the 2023 event, along with Karla Ballard and Lauren Postler.
Earlier this year, Kennedy appointed Brana to run his ballot-access operation. Meanwhile, the bulk of Kennedy’s gargantuan ballot access effort has been spent with two firms owned by Pool — Accelevate 2020 LLC ($6.5mm) and Public Appeal, LLC ($1.3mm).
Pool, 37, was arrested at New York’s SoHo Grand Hotel in May, 2024, following charges that he assaulted a woman, 25, and reportedly “wrapped his hand around her neck making it hard for her to breath[e], and then struck her in the face with a closed fist.”
Federal campaign records confirm that the American Values 2024 PAC spent over $5,900 at the SoHo Grand Hotel, and that Pool’s two firms have been paid at least $7.8 million combined, between the campaign and its supporting PAC.
Session on “Texit” at INC ‘23. (website)
Topics at the INC ‘23 event ran the gamut from cryptocurrencies and blockchain voting to the future of democracy and sovereign secession, with a decidedly anti-government undercurrent — including a session on Texit (Texas Exit), a movement supported with Russian information warfare, and mirroring other efforts to break up California and promote independence for Hawaii and Alaska. Other returning speakers from United We Stand include Brock Pierce and Brittany Kaiser, formerly of Cambridge Analytica.
An upcoming 2024 INC event is scheduled for September 18-20 in Denver, Colorado, and will feature a keynote from Kennedy, as well as talks from current presidential candidate Cornel West, Nick Brana, and others.
Christopher Thrasher, Esq.,
Ballot Access Marketing, LLC (LinkedIn)
Ballot Access Marketing, LLC
Besides Christina Tobin and Trent Pool, one other individual has done significant work on ballot access for Kennedy’s campaign. Ballot Access Marketing, LLC, owned by petition expert Christopher Thrasher has received $520,267 from the American Values 2024 PAC.
Christopher Thrasher, Free and Equal Elections spokesman, Oct 17, 2008. (McClatchy)
Thrasher is a former spokesperson for Tobin’s Free and Equal organization, and the two worked together to organize a third-party presidential debate in 2008, which sought to feature “End the Fed” author Ron Paul, Ralph Nader, and Green Candidate Cynthia McKinney. (McKinney later went on to work with the late QAnon-promoter Robert David Steele, who died in 2021 after a bout with COVID.)
Presidential Debates
In addition to the UWS and INC events, Tobin has organized “alternative” presidential debates in every cycle since 2008, with varying degrees of success. In 2008, only two candidates, Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party) and Ralph Nader (Independent), participated, but has expanded, hosting four candidates in 2012; three in 2016; over a dozen in 2020; and nine in 2024.
Free & Equal Debate, FreedomFest 2024, Las Vegas, July 12, 2024.
Left to Right: Chase Oliver, Jill Stein, Randall Terry. (Wikipedia)
Tobin’s Free & Equal debates have struggled to find mainstream audiences, having been aired variously on C-SPAN, RT (Russian state media), Al Jazeera English (Qatar state media), and most recently on Rumble, an internet video service backed by investor Peter Thiel and his protégé, current Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance.
Most recently, Tobin hosted a Free & Equal debate at FreedomFest 2024 in Las Vegas, a far-right libertarian event organized by conservative hardliner Mark Skousen. Skousen is closely associated with the Council for National Policy, with Ron Paul, and many other extreme libertarian organizations. The debate, moderated by Rep. Thomas Massie, included Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver, Green party candidate Jill Stein, and Constitution Party candidate Randall Terry.
Promotional graphic for Rage Against the War Machine, February 19, 2023.
Rage Against the War Machine
Many speakers from the United We Stand and Independent National Convention universe also appeared at the heavily libertarian “Rage Against the War Machine” rally held in February 2023, in Washington D.C., and covered by The Washington Spectator here. And the Rage rally promoted similar themes: an end to taxation that fuels wars and putting an end to NATO and foreign entanglements. Tobin notes that she was there, with Rep. Thomas Massie — along with Jill Stein, Tulsi Gabbard, Ron Paul, Scott Ritter, Tara Reade, Dennis Kucinich, and Jackson Hinkle — all of whom have praised Russian policy.
The Rage event was also hosted by the Schiller Institute, the think tank formerly led by crank political theorist Lyndon LaRouche. The group promotes policies inline with Putin’s agenda, rooted in the concept of the Noosphere (previously described here).
Tobin with G. Edward Griffin, Aug 15 2017 (Facebook); with Mark Skousen and Rep. Thomas Massie, May 27 2024. (Facebook)
with Lauren Southern, Feb 24 2018 at Anarchopulco (Facebook); and Rand Paul, Sep 29, 2010 (Facebook)
Fueling the Drive to Dismantle Government
Kennedy, the candidate, likes to present himself as a populist, anti-establishment environmentalist fighting for the common man. However any sufficiently detailed analysis of the networks around him suggest a pervasive anarcho-libertarian orientation throughout his organization. Kennedy’s ballot access apparatus revolves around Christina Tobin’s networks, and those networks are oriented around libertarian, anti-government ideas.
Rep. Thomas Massie, with whom Tobin has become close, has proposed a bill to “abolish” the Federal Reserve — a recommendation also included in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, and mirroring fetishes held by Ron Paul, Rand Paul, and G. Edward Griffin.
Additionally, there is a strong affinity for Russia, its policies, and those espoused by the geopolitical theorist Aleksandr Dugin. In 2018, Tobin posed for a photo with well-known Dugin proxy Lauren Southern at Anarchopulco, a notorious anarchist conference in Acapulco.
Any careful study of Tobin’s network, which has been heavily funded by Kennedy’s campaign and associated PAC, reveals a clear anarcho-libertarian and anti-government worldview, along with an alignment with Russia’s policies and known proxies.
If these people, with this clearly defined orientation, are willing to work so hard to get Kennedy on the ballot, it is likely that Kennedy himself intends to serve as a proxy for the same worldview.
Dave Troy is an investigative journalist focused on exposing threats to democracy. Based in Baltimore, his background as a technologist with an interest in studying online extremism affords him a unique perspective. His work has appeared at MoMA in New York, and he is a fellow with New America Foundation’s Future Frontlines. Dave writes regularly about information warfare, history, and politics. He is the host of the podcast Dave Troy Presents, and speaks regularly at conferences on disinformation, extremism, and information warfare. Contact information is available at davetroy.com.
.jpg){kind=link}
This article raises important questions about RFK’s ideological underpinnings and those of his presidential campaign.
While Kennedy presents himself as a populist environmentalist, the extensive connections between his ballot access operation and far-right libertarian networks suggest a more complex political alignment, and one which is squarely not in favor of American-style democracy. The significant financial investment in these ballot access firms, coupled with the ideological leanings of key figures like Christina Tobin, indicates that Kennedy’s campaign may be more closely aligned with anarcho-libertarian and anti-establishment views than his public image suggests.
In my opinion, Troy’s well-researched article highlights the importance of looking beyond a candidate’s public persona to examine their operational networks and financial relationships. It also highlights the complex and sometimes unexpected alliances that can form in the pursuit of ballot access for third-party and independent candidates.
Voters should consider these factors when evaluating Kennedy’s policy positions and potential future impact to our nation.