The super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential bid is narrowing its ballot access campaign focus to seven states — including crucial battlegrounds that will determine the outcome of the presidential election.

American Values 2024 will now prioritize helping to get Kennedy on the ballot in Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York and Texas, according to plans first shared with POLITICO.

Half of these target states were decisive in the 2020 race, and won by now-President Joe Biden by narrow margins. The promotion of a third-party candidate in these battlegrounds could change the pathways for victory for the major parties’ nominees — even if Kennedy only garners single-digit support next November.

“The seven states we will initially focus on have a total of 183 electoral college votes and some of the highest populations in the country,” PAC Founder Tony Lyons said in a statement.

The super PAC originally planned to also work on gaining ballot access in Indiana, Colorado and Nevada but have dropped them from the list after advice from their counsel. But American Values 2024 will still dedicate between $10 and $15 million to the smaller list of states.

A statement outlining the new plan also said it’s confident that Kennedy could win a contingent election, a possible scenario where no presidential candidate gets 270 electoral college votes. Under such a scenario, congressional delegations from each state cast votes to choose the next president.

“Kennedy has two clear pathways to the White House,” Lyons said. “We will do everything we can, while working closely with our attorneys and without coordinating with the campaign, to make sure that the uniparty fails in any efforts to derail the peaceful, populist revolution that he represents.”

There hasn’t been a contingent election since 1836. It is also widely believed that a contingent election would result in the Republican nominee winning the presidency because there are more state delegations with a majority of Republican members than Democratic ones.

Kennedy is garnering about 13 percent of voter support, according to public polling in matchups with Biden, Donald Trump, fellow independent candidate Cornel West and Green Party candidate Jill Stein. In three way matchups, with just Trump and Biden, Kennedy’s support increases to 15.4 percent.

Lyons is bullish on Kennedy’s chances in 2024 based on the recent polls, especially data that shows higher support among younger voters.

“I think in the end both parties are anti-democratic and that they would prefer to keep Bobby Kennedy off the ballot. They prefer to keep each other off the ballot,” Lyons said in a phone interview. “Not debate them, not engage, find a way to disqualify [candidates], and I don’t think that should happen in a democracy.”

In the biggest game so far this season, the Vikings will be without starting cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. He was ruled out with a knee injury on Friday with the Vikings set to host the Detroit Lions on Christmas Eve.

Asked about the decision, head coach Kevin O’Connell noted that it wasn’t for a lack of effort on Murphy’s part.

“Just couldn’t get Byron turned over enough to get him to be available,” O’Connell said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get him some work and get him back out there with us next week.”

This started to feel like a real possibility this week with Murphy unable to participate in practice. His knee injury occurred in last Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, and while Murphy managed to make it through the whole game, it became an issue afterward.

“That  goes to show how tough he is,” O’Connell said. “He battled through it.”

The fact that Murphy can’t play this weekend is a huge loss for the Vikings as they attempt to defend Lions star receiver Amon Ra St. Brown. Though the Vikings will likely lean heavily on safety Josh Metellus bumping down and playing in the slot, they also will have to rely on cornerback Akayleb Evans and rookie cornerback Mekhi Blackmon to step up and fill the void.

Luckily for the Vikings, defensive coordinator Brian Flores, defensive backs coach Daronte Jones and assistant defensive backs coach Michael Hutchings have consistently been building the confidence of some of the younger players on the roster.

“Those guys have been getting those guys ready throughout this season for moments like this where they’ve got to step in against a really impressive skill group,” O’Connell said. “We’re going to have to defend and try to get some pressure and ultimately see if we can put together a good day on defense, which is my expectation with that group.”

Briefly

It seems as if the Vikings will have multiple game-time decisions on Sunday. They are listing right tackle Brian O’Neill (ankle), running back Alexander Mattison (ankle), defensive tackle Harrison Phillips (back), defensive tackle Jonathan Bullard (ankle), linebacker Jordan Hicks (shin) and linebacker Ivan Pace Jr. (shoulder) as questionable.

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You can learn a lot about yourself — and those closest to you — on vacation. That’s the animus behind the blockbuster HBO series “The White Lotus,” and it’s also the major theme of the new family animated film “Migration.” An odd comparison, perhaps, but it all makes perfect sense when you consider both projects happen to be written by Mike White. He’s taken this notion about the transformative power of travel from his award-winning prestige TV series and transplanted it to a kid-friendly animated film about a family of ducks who finally decide to take an annual migration away from their cozy pond to see what they can see.

Kumail Nanjiani voices Mack, the anxious and overprotective patriarch of the Mallard family, content to let his family stay put in the safety of their pond, far away from sharp heron beaks. He emphasizes his paranoid worldview with terrifying bedtime stories for his kids, Dax (Caspar Jennings) and Gwen (Tresi Gazal), but when a family of seabirds traveling south to Jamaica for the winter alights in their pond for a layover, Dax develops a crush on Kim (Isabela Merced) and becomes fixated on taking a migration. Terrified of turning into his decrepit Uncle Dan (Danny DeVito), and wanting to impress his wife Pam (Elizabeth Banks), Mack decides to take off with his family for parts south, despite his inhibitions. What could go wrong? Oh, everything. But what could go right? So, so much more.

“Migration” is swift and appealing, a high-flying jaunt that doesn’t need to break the mold on these kinds of family adventure movies. The character design is familiar, but the flying scenes are remarkably conceived and executed; it’s colorful, comforting and crisply rendered. But it is also laced through with a swirl of cultural commentary that reveals White’s worldview.

There’s of course the lessons to be learned through travel and adventure, especially about your partner. Mack realizes that Pam is tougher and savvier than he gave her credit for, and Pam is charmed to see Mack step up and demonstrate his bravery as the leader of their family as they get themselves into many, many perilous situations. That mirrors the themes of the resort-set “The White Lotus,” as well as White’s own stint as a cast member on the reality show “Survivor.”

You can see White’s ethical influence as well in the main antagonist, an uber-cool tattooed bad boy chef, known for his duck a l’orange, and whom the Mallard family has to keep escaping again and again. A city pigeon named Chump (Awkwafina) explains that the chef is a predator who cooks and feeds ducks to other, lazier predators — diners. It’s a funny line that may make you sit up straight and wonder if this movie might put kids off poultry, so it’s not a surprise to discover that White is a vegan for ethical, animal-loving reasons.

His questioning of animal farming practices extends to another pit stop that the Mallard family makes after liberating the chef’s pet parrot Delroy (Keegan-Michael Key), at a cultish duck utopia, where the birds are being fattened for slaughter. Led by a guru named GooGoo (David Mitchell), it feels like a spa out of a Mike White series such as “Enlightened” or “Lotus.” But even the kindly farmers here are handing over their birds for cash to the chef, and the Mallards can’t escape this knife-wielding maniac on their tail feathers. In a harried climax, they have to fight off the chef once and for all before they can make their way to their final destination.

It’s these kinds of details in storytelling that reveal “Migration” to be an auteur project for White, who wrote the screenplay and dreamed up the story with director Benjamin Renner. It is a family-friendly, seasonal, nondenominational holiday movie option, but it’s more fun to pick out what makes this a Mike White project, and his influence gives it a slight edge over the rest, making “Migration” a worthwhile journey.

‘Migration’

2.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG (for action/peril and mild rude humor)

Running time: 1:32

How to watch: In theaters Friday

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Ty Chandler talked about seizing the moment last Sunday after the Vikings’ 27-24 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Though the young running back would have preferred a win more than anything else, he had to settle for a performance that saw him rush for 132 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries in the first start of his career.

“He’s got juice,” quarterback Nick Mullens said. “It’s what we want from a running back.”

Chandler’s explosiveness has been on display ever since the Vikings selected him in the 2022 NFL Draft. His talent was undeniable from the first time he stepped foot on the field. He simply had to work on some of the fundamentals in his game.

After practicing patience with Chandler over the past couple of seasons — too much patience as far as large portions of the fan base was concerned — the Vikings finally took Chandler’s training wheels off last weekend with fellow running back Alexander Mattison working through an ankle injury.

The results were as undeniable as Chandler’s talent. It raises the question: What took the Vikings so long to start featuring him?

Asked different variations of that same question, head coach Kevin O’Connell and offensive coordinator Wes Phillips gave similar answers that centered on Chandler’s development as a player. He needed to learn the intricacies of playing running back at the highest level.

“You see more of the finished product and say, ‘Why wasn’t he in right from the start?’ ” Phillips said. “There’s been a lot of growth from when he first came in.”

Now it appears Chandler is ready to shoulder the load. He’s dynamic with the ball in his hands and brings an element to the offense that doesn’t exist without him.

That’s why it was interesting when O’Connell stopped short of declaring Chandler the starter for the Vikings’ home game against the Detroit Lions on Christmas Eve. As much as he emphasized that Chandler will be a big part of the game plan, O’Connell left the door open for Mattison to reclaim his role as the starter.

“There is no question Ty is absolutely a guy that is going to continue to see a featured role in our offense,” O’Connell said. “As far as what that looks like moving forward with who gets the first touch of the game and all those things, we’ll continue to work through that based upon what we are attempting to do scheme-wise.”

Maybe that was O’Connell delivering the politically correct answer so not to admit publicly that Mattison had lost his job to Chandler. Maybe when the Vikings take the field on offense for the first time against the Lions, they will do so with Chandler as the lead back. Maybe it won’t even matter because Mattison could very well miss the game after being listed as questionable.

“We’re kind of building with the mindset that Ty is going to be a guy that we are trying to get the ball to a lot,” O’Connell said. “Both in the run and in the pass.”

That would behoove the Vikings considering how Chandler performed in his first start.

“He did exactly what we expected him to do,” star receiver Justin Jefferson said. “He did a phenomenal job in his first game as a starter, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing him during this last stretch.”

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