RFK Jr.’s sputtering presidential campaign is almost broke

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s sputtering presidential campaign faces dire financial straits after continuing to spend more in July than it raised.

The independent was left with just $3.9 million in the bank at the end of last month — while owing nearly $3.5 million in debt, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday. That was after the campaign reported spending more than $7 million in July, despite cutting back on events, while raising just $5.6 million — nearly half of which came from his running mate, Nicole Shanahan.

The new report comes as Kennedy’s campaign faces an array of other challenges; he is still attempting to get on the ballot in key states but was recently denied access in New York, where a judge ruled the residential address on his petitions was not his legitimate home address.

Kennedy has not appeared at a public campaign event since early July, popping up sparingly at conferences and on podcasts. And his standing in the polls has continued to drop with both major parties consolidating support after the Republican National Convention and Vice President Kamala Harris' replacement of President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket.

In recent weeks, Kennedy has reportedly sought positions in potential administrations of both Harris and former President Donald Trump in exchange for his dropping out and endorsing them, but has been rebuffed.

His July finance report reflected his campaign’s work on ballot access: The largest vendor in the month was Accelevate 2020 LLC, a firm that works on ballot access. Other major expenses included more than $600,000 in spending on Facebook and Google ads. And the campaign accrued more than $400,000 in new debt to a security firm run by one of his longtime associates.

Despite a much-touted joint fundraising partnership with the Libertarian Party, Kennedy’s fundraising ticked up only slightly in July, not enough to keep pace with his campaign’s spending.