Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s supporters are relaunching the political party he formed last year — potentially creating a pathway for him to run for president again in 2028 and offering a home for disaffected Kennedy-aligned voters who backed Republicans in 2024.
A group of former Kennedy campaign staff, volunteers and backers have resurrected the We The People Party, the minor party Kennedy created to gain ballot access in some states during his long-shot independent presidential campaign.
Levi Leatherberry, chair of the We The People Party and a former Kennedy campaign staffer, said the organization is aiming to drastically expand its ballot access in the next three years. The nascent campaign’s first target is New York, where a Kennedy-aligned gubernatorial candidate could put the party on the state’s ballot.
“We only need to get to, like, 26 states for it to be as useful as it will be to any presidential candidate,” Leatherberry said of the party’s ballot access mission in an interview. “That’s our focus. Building out, so we are actually useful, we’re actually something to be reckoned with.”
The revitalized party is hoping to fold in voters across the political spectrum who identify with the medical freedom movement — the same voters Kennedy targeted with his campaign, and the same voters President Donald Trump and Republicans are hoping to appease through the “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
Leatherberry said he hopes the We The People Party will eventually be on the ballot in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. But he hinted that the party could create leverage for Kennedy or another ideologically aligned candidate without gaining ballot access nationwide.
“And yeah, we will be able to run national candidates,” he added.
The reboot comes amid some tension between Kennedy and some of the president’s most ardent supporters. Over the summer, Trump whisperer Laura Loomer attacked Kennedy and Stefanie Spear, one of Kennedy’s top aides at Health and Human Services and a key cog in his 2024 president run.
Loomer claimed Spear was laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential run for Kennedy. Kennedy defended Spear and called speculation he would run for president a “flat-out lie” and an attempt to “drive a wedge” between him and Trump. “Let me be clear: I am not running for president in 2028,” he said in August.
Leatherberry said he has not spoken to Kennedy since taking over leadership of the party. Kennedy did not respond to a request for comment sent through a HHS spokesperson.
Shortly after Kennedy abandoned his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in favor of an independent bid, his campaign formed the We The People Party to circumnavigate cumbersome ballot access requirements for independent candidates. In some states, ballot access is significantly easier for candidates backed by a political party than for independents.
Even though Kennedy dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Trump before Election Day, his name appeared on the ballot in 31 states. In nine of those states, he appeared on a We The People Party line.
Aides close to the president have been eager to keep Kennedy and his MAHA supporters in the tent ahead of the midterms, viewing them as crucial supporters who helped fuel Trump’s victory in 2024. After a vaccine regulator had been forced out under pressure from Loomer, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles intervened and worked with Kennedy to get him reinstated.
In September, Leatherberry and other Kennedy supporters formally relaunched the We The People Party with an eye toward 2028. In a livestreamed organizing event, Leatherberry laid out a vision of gaining ballot access in dozens of states before the midterms and then endorsing a candidate in a national convention ahead of the next presidential election. That hypothetical candidate, Leatherberry said, would avoid the costly and litigious signature gathering process required of independent candidates in most states.
“Our candidate will be on — free, day one,” Leatherberry said in September. “That means we can already nominate a presidential candidate, or national candidates, or local candidates for free.”
Although Leatherberry hopes the party can recruit candidates in down-ballot races to expand the party’s influence quickly, thus far only one candidate has accepted a We The People Party endorsement: Larry Sharpe, a longtime Libertarian Party member who served as a Kennedy campaign surrogate in 2024 and is currently running his third consecutive campaign for governor of New York.
New York has some of the most burdensome ballot access requirements in the country — it was the only state without any independent or third-party presidential candidates in 2024. Sharpe himself failed to make the ballot in 2022, running as a write-in candidate instead, and a judge ruled Kennedy could not appear on New York’s ballot last year due to his improperly listing his residency.
But if Sharpe gets enough support in the gubernatorial race on the We The People Party line next year, it would make it possible for Kennedy — or anyone else — to run on that line in 2028.
Sharpe defined the party as united in its distrust of both Republicans and Democrats, and the two-party system at large — without any core ideological underpinnings.
“It is basically an anti-establishment party,” Sharpe said. “Anti-establishment is very vague.”
Some of Kennedy’s supporters have also extended that wariness toward the Trump administration. Some MAHA supporters have targeted Spear, Kennedy’s close aide, and Wiles, the White House chief of staff, claiming both were undermining the movement.
Kennedy flew to their defense. “The MAHA movement has no better friend in Washington than [Wiles] who has supported every effort to end the chronic disease epidemic and restore health freedom to every American,” he wrote on social media earlier this month.
Leatherberry also indicated interest in working with Tulsi Gabbard, the Democrat-turned-Trump campaign surrogate now serving as the Director of National Intelligence, and with Rep. Thomas Massie, the Libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican whose repeated antagonization of Trump has inspired a well-funded primary challenge.
A spokesperson for Gabbard declined to comment. A spokesperson for Massie did not respond to a request for comment.
Leatherberry insisted he’s neutral on whether Kennedy should run for president, or whether the We The People party should endorse a presidential candidate in 2028. But Sharpe said he hopes Kennedy will run as a third-party candidate to carry the torch for the anti-establishment voters the party represents.
“I think he kind of has to,” Sharpe said. “Unless someone else steps up. And at the moment, I don’t see anybody else stepping up.”
A version of this article first appeared in POLITICO Pro’s Morning Score. Want to receive the newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.
