RFK Jr. was set to be on the SC presidential ballot. What happens now that he dropped out?

Robert Kennedy Jr., a scion of an American political dynasty, dropped out of the presidential race Friday after spending more than a year stumping for the White House.

Although he initially sought the Democratic nomination , he decided to run as an independent and made the Palmetto State’s presidential ballot as the nominee for the Alliance Party of South Carolina .

Now the Alliance Party may not appear on the state’s presidential ballot after Kennedy’s exit, as the party leadership will probably make a decision by Monday on whether to keep Kennedy’s name on the ballot.

Political parties in South Carolina have until noon Sept. 3 to certify their candidates for president.

Jim Rex, national chair emeritus for the Alliance Party said in an interview earlier this week the Alliance Party planned to tell the state election commission to remove Kennedy’s name as its nominee on the presidential ballot.

Kennedy, however, when announcing he would suspend his campaign and endorse Trump, said he would seek to remove his name only from battleground state ballots.

Kennedy said he feared his candidacy would help Vice President Kamala Harris win the election.

“If you live in a blue state, you can vote for me without harming or helping President Trump or Vice President Harris. In red states, the same will apply,” Kennedy said.

The Alliance Party also strives not to support candidates from either major party.

“As a viable third option, a new approach to politics, we try not to take sides,” Rex said on Wednesday.

Some voters in South Carolina will have an Alliance Party option in other races.

The Alliance Party has two candidates running for Congress, one for State House, one for the state Senate and one candidate running for sheriff in Marlboro County.

Kennedy’s campaign and its volunteers submitted more than 18,000 signatures in March, more than the required 10,000 signatures of registered voters to make the ballot in South Carolina.

However, individual county elections boards had to verify signatures to make sure they were valid.

That signature verification continued until the Alliance Party told the state election commission in July it had nominated Kennedy. More than 8,000 signatures had been verified before the verification effort was officially stopped. State election officials said Richland and Charleston counties had yet to report how many signatures from their counties had been verified, so eclipsing the 10,000-signature mark was expected.

Kennedy’s exit will leave “a lot of broken hearts,” Rex conceded, but it also strikes a blow to those who want a viable alternative to the two major parties in the country.

“We’re really disappointed in that,” Rex said. “We really thought, if he would not win, he would amass a significant amount of votes and maybe reach the 5% level which would bring in federal funding if he decided to run again in the future or someone else from his party.”

Before Kennedy dropped out, he was seen as siphoning a little more votes away from former President Donald Trump than the Democratic ticket.

But it was doubtful Kennedy would have had any impact on South Carolina’s presidential vote in November. South Carolina is a reliably Republican state where Trump is very popular and where the GOP dominates in straight-party ticket voting.

The Democratic Party in other states, including New York , Pennsylvania and Georgia , sought to remove Kennedy from the ballot.

Rex himself previously was a member of the Democratic Party. He was the last Democrat in South Carolina to win statewide office when he was elected state superintendent in 2006. He eventually left the Democratic Party.

“We think it’s a broken system with the two-party system only giving our voters two choices and having them settle cycle after cycle on ‘the lesser of two evils,’” Rex said. “So many Americans have gotten accustomed to voting against the person they … fear the most as opposed to voting for the person they believe would be the best candidate.”

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