Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says an unusual legal battle from his presidential campaign has left him in a political oddity. He claims he currently has no state where he can legally vote. The health secretary made the startling admission while discussing homelessness in Los Angeles this week.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his 2024 residency fight left him without a legal voting residence
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 72, made the comment after a reporter asked whether he could vote in Los Angeles’ upcoming mayoral election. He traced the problem to lawsuits surrounding his 2024 independent presidential campaign, saying Democrats challenged his ballot status across 12 states.
His explanation centered on New York, where a judge removed him from the ballot after rejecting the residential address he listed on his nominating paperwork. RFK Jr. had claimed a room at a friend’s Katonah, New York, home, although he testified that he had spent only one night there because campaign travel kept him elsewhere (via The Daily Beast).
New York Judge Christina Ryba ultimately concluded that RFK Jr. resides in California with his wife, actress Cheryl Hines. Her ruling described the Katonah residence claim as a “false statement” and called his explanation for potentially returning there “highly improbable.” The health secretary had moved to California in 2014 but maintained that he intended to return to New York.
RFK Jr. now says that ruling created a bizarre voting predicament. “I literally have no state where I can legally vote right now,” he told reporters, adding that he was trying to resolve the issue before another election. He also described himself as potentially the only U.S. citizen facing such a situation.
The residency dispute did not end with the 2024 campaign. In January 2025, Accountable.US filed a complaint accusing him of voter fraud, alleging that he used the same Katonah address to cast a mail ballot in November despite the earlier ruling.
The watchdog group argued that RFK Jr. already knew the court had rejected his claim to the property. Its complaint, reported by the Associated Press, said he voted from the address “despite this undisputable knowledge.”
