Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday suspended his long-shot White House bid and endorsed Donald Trump, which the GOP nominee hopes will deliver a small boost in key swing states.
The son and nephew of Democrats who dominated politics before they were killed by assassins, Kennedy never seriously challenged Trump, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris or President Joe Biden before he also dropped out. Still, his roughly 5 percent support among voters nationally could affect results in battleground states expected to decide the election.
“In a fair system, I believe I would have won the election,” Kennedy said during remarks in Phoenix. But he accused the Democratic National Committee and mainstream media outlets — without presenting actual proof — of colluding against him.
Kennedy said he concluded he did not have a “real path to the White House” adding he would “throw my support to [former] President Trump.” That decision was driven by what he dubbed a “war on free speech” by Democrats, American support for Ukraine and anti-child policies at home. And he claimed Trump, less than two hours after a failed July 13 assassination attempt on him at a Pennsylvania rally, “asked to enlist me in his administration.”
After multiple meetings and telephone conversations with the Republican nominee, Kennedy said — despite his past criticism of the 45th president — he concluded he and Trump actually “are aligned on many issues.”
“I am not terminating my campaign. I am not ending my campaign,” he said. “I am merely suspending it. … My name will remain on the ballot in most states.” Oddly, he said voters in red and blue states could “still vote for me without harming President Trump or Vice President Harris” — but doing so would help the candidate a voter liked less, a contradiction he did not clarify.
During rambling and grievance-filled remarks, Kennedy contended that if neither major party nominee reaches the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win, “I could still end up in the White House in a contested election.”
But in key battleground states, he said, he already has begun taking the legal steps to have his name removed from the ballot. Kennedy contended if he stayed on ballots in key battlegrounds, it would “likely hand the election over to the Democrats, with whom I disagree” on issues like free speech and “chronic disease.”
One day after Harris formally accepted the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination at its national convention, Kennedy accused his former party of having “engineered a surge of popularity for Harris” that culminated Thursday night with a “smoke and mirrors … circus in Chicago,” adding: “Who needs a policy when you’ve got Trump to hate?”
Kennedy, who initially got into the Democratic primary race against Biden but switched to running as an independent, said Democrats had abandoned policy stances and values important to him, and had worked to keep him from challenging Biden. Legal advisers, he contended, told him continuing as a Democratic Party candidate would have been akin to climbing “Mount Impossible.”
Kennedy’s campaign was mostly characterized by espousing conspiracy theories, a contention he once suffered from a brain worm and even a claim of responsibility for a bear carcass that he said he left in New York’s Central Park.
Kennedy had the support of 4.7 percent of Americans, according to an average of polls by FiveThirtyEight. An average of multiple surveys by RealClearPolitics put Kennedy’s support at 5 percent. One poll conducted last week by CBS News, however, put Kennedy at 2 percent nationally.
Kennedy was polling at 5 percent or just above in several key swing states, including Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin and Michigan, according to RealClear’s averages of polls in those battlegrounds. He was around 4 percent in North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
With Trump and Harris running neck-and-neck in each of those states, how Kennedy’s supporters break likely will make a major impact.
In a statement, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon made a pitch to Kennedy’s backers. “For any American out there who is tired of Donald Trump and looking for a new way forward, ours is a campaign for you,” she said. “In order to deliver for working people and those who feel left behind, we need a leader who will fight for you, not just for themselves, and bring us together, not tear us apart. Vice President Harris wants to earn your support.”
Trump was asked Thursday during a campaign stop at the southern border in Arizona about a possible Kennedy endorsement. He said only that it would be a “great honor” to receive it. A couple hours later, his campaign fired off a blast email teasing a “special guest” at a Friday campaign rally in Glendale, Ariz.
Trump in May dubbed Kennedy a “fake,” a “Democrat ‘Plant’” and “Radical Left Liberal who’s been put in place” to harm the former president’s campaign. He also labeled the Kennedy family “a bunch of lunatics,” adding: “He is not a Republican so don’t think you’re going to vote for him and feel good.”
One Democratic strategist said Kennedy backing Trump would have had a bigger impact a month ago, when Biden was vowing to stay in the race.
“RFK Jr. doesn’t have many votes to bring to Trump’s table. His endorsement had more value for the GOP nominee when Biden was the Democratic nominee and independents were looking for an alternative to the two aging men,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said in a Friday email. “Harris now provides that option.”
Kyle Kondik, an analyst at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, wrote on X that “Harris probably already took her bite out of RFK’s support and maybe there’s some now for Trump to grab. Probably not some sort of huge impact, though.”
Still, from a messaging and strategy standpoint, Kennedy’s announcement could accomplish one thing for the media coverage-minded Republican nominee.
“Trump does get a big one day national story with the Kennedy endorsement that is a minor distraction to the triumphal Democratic convention,” Bannon said. “The Kennedy endorsement also provides the ultra-partisan GOP campaign with a thin veneer of bipartisanship. … But we won’t be talking about the impact of RFK’s endorsement after Election Day.”
One Harris congressional ally also said she is not worried about the Trump-Kennedy alliance.
Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow told CNN on Thursday that her concern level is “less than I was worried about in the beginning [when] I thought there was going to be a broader impact.”
“It wasn’t clear whether that was going to be his name and people on the left, or it was going to be, you know, his craziness and people on the right,” she said from the United Center in Chicago, which hosted the Democratic convention. “It looks like he’s gone for the craziness on the right. But, I think, in the end, it will have very little impact.
“What’s going to have impact in Michigan is enthusiasm and turnout,” Stabenow added. “We are laser-focused on getting people out. And don’t underestimate … the craziness and the hatefulness of Donald Trump versus the joy and moving forward in this hall.”
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