Marco Battaglia, who hopes to run for the state\u2019s 3rd Congressional District, has faced multiple challenges from Republicans<\/a> over his eligibility and was even struck from the ballot on Monday \u2014 though he plans to appeal the state election panel\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

Battaglia said Nunn visited his home on June 7 to convince him to exit the race. Then, a day later, came a call from Washington \u2014 and Kennedy, allegedly, was on the other line.<\/p>\n

Battaglia said Kennedy told him that it would be a direct blow to Kennedy, personally, if Republicans lost the seat.<\/p>\n

“If this seat flips, it’ll make my life hell,” Kennedy said, according to Battaglia’s recollection. It\u2019s not clear what Kennedy was referring to, but the HHS secretary could face impeachment<\/a> should Democrats retake control of the House.<\/p>\n

Battaglia shared screenshots of his call log with Blue Light News that show an incoming call from a phone number Kennedy has previously used. The call arrived at 12:44 p.m. central and lasted nearly 12 minutes. Blue Light News also reviewed screenshots of text messages Battaglia later sent to the number associated with Kennedy, which did not garner responses.<\/p>\n

Kennedy\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment. In recent weeks, the secretary has stepped up his involvement in battleground races, visiting Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden\u2019s<\/a> 3rd District and Democratic Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s 9th District. He will appear with GOP Rep. Tom Barrett in Michigan\u2019s 7th District on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Nunn\u2019s campaign did not dispute that he visited Battaglia\u2019s home, but adviser Annie Kuhle said in a statement that the purpose was to inform Battaglia of challenges to his signatures and invite him to cooperate with the investigation.<\/p>\n

Kuhle said there is \u201cstrong evidence\u201d Battaglia\u2019s signatures were gathered \u201cby dark-money outside groups with ties to the Democrat Party.\u201d Nunn\u2019s meeting with Battaglia was first reported by the Des Moines Register<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Battaglia was removed from the ballot Monday after the Iowa State Objection Panel \u2014 which adjudicates challenges to candidate eligibility \u2014 determined he was ineligible because he did not use his legal name: Mark Thomas Andersen.<\/p>\n

Battaglia told Blue Light News he plans to appeal the decision, as his party did in 2024 when all Libertarians were removed from the ballot for not following state law in their nominating process. When that appeal failed<\/a>, Battaglia and other Libertarian candidates launched write-in campaigns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIowa Republicans know they can\u2019t win on ideas, so they are resorting to their favorite tactic: suppressing voter choice,\u201d Evan McMahon, chair of the national Libertarian Party, said in a statement. \u201cWhen a third party gathers a record number of signatures and earns its place on the ballot, the answer is to debate them, not to bully them, bribe them, or sue them off the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 3rd District is one of Democrats\u2019 top targets this cycle, a seat Nunn won by fewer than four points in 2024 even as Trump won the state by 13 points. State Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, the Democratic nominee, is a member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee\u2019s \u201cRed to Blue\u201d program.<\/p>\n

Republicans have already spent nearly $4.5 million to defend the seat, according to the political advertising tracker AdImpact. Republicans warn Battaglia\u2019s presence on the ballot \u2014 drawing conservative votes away from Nunn \u2014 could tip a close race.<\/p>\n

The Republican National Committee did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Battaglia says Nunn, during his June 7 visit to his home, offered him a deal and referenced the HHS secretary: \u201cWe’ll fly you out to D.C. and you can be my wing man,\u201d Nunn allegedly said, per Battaglia\u2019s recollection. \u201cWe’ll make you the poster boy for election integrity, and we’ll hang out with Robert Kennedy Jr.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nunn\u2019s campaign denies the representative said any such thing. \u201cNo offer, inducement, or thing of value was ever proposed or provided in exchange for withdrawing the nomination petitions,\u201d said Kuhle, the Nunn campaign strategist, in a statement.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Nunn\u2019s campaign, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said they \u201ckept stakeholders, including the White House, informed of our concerns,\u201d but they \u201cdid not ask them to take any action on our behalf, and were not aware of any actions taken until Marco informed us of the call [with Kennedy].\u201d<\/p>\n

Battaglia is a longtime Kennedy supporter who backed him when he launched a Democratic bid for president<\/a> in 2023. Battaglia said he met Kennedy during a campaign stop in Des Moines in August 2023, when the then-Democrat spoke at a coffee shop<\/a>. Battaglia said he presented Kennedy with a gift: A VHS tape of \u201cThe Second Gun,\u201d a documentary exploring an alternate theory of Kennedy\u2019s father\u2019s assassination.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe seemed to respond to it warmly,\u201d Battaglia said. \u201cIt was a nice gift.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Libertarian challenger in a top Iowa battleground says Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the district\u2019s current representative, GOP Rep. Zach Nunn, privately pressured him to drop out. Marco Battaglia, who hopes to run for the state\u2019s 3rd Congressional District, has faced multiple challenges from Republicans over his eligibility and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}