by Mary Lou Masters
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who had been vying for the Democratic nomination for president, announced in Philadelphia on Monday he will now run as an independent.
Kennedy first launched his presidential bid in April, and has been critical of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC’s) rules for aiding President Joe Biden, and not hosting primary debates.
Prior to his announcement, Kennedy’s campaign planned to release “attack ads” against the DNC to “pave the way” for the 2024 hopeful’s party affiliation switch.
The 2024 hopeful has focused his campaign on ending “the corrupt merger of state and corporate power,” and has garnered the support of several prominent public figures, including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and actors Woody Harrelson and Pierce Brosnan.
Kennedy has repeatedly split from the modern Democratic Party on his views of the Ukraine war, censorship, the COVID-19 vaccine and other issues, and criticized Biden for supporting continued aid to Ukraine in an interview with Daily Caller News Foundation co-founder Tucker Carlson.
The RealClearPolitics (RCP) average for a 2024 national Democratic primary, based on polls conducted between Sept. 9 and Sept. 29, indicates Biden is leading the field by 50 points, followed by Kennedy at 14.9 percent and self-help author Marianne Williamson at 4.8 percent.
The 2024 general election could see multiple third-party candidates, including Kennedy, Green Party candidate Cornel West, a Libertarian Party candidate and potentially a candidate for No Labels, a centrist organization that has been flirting with a ticket. While some Democrats are concerned that third-party candidates could siphon off more votes from Biden than Trump, Kennedy has argued otherwise in his case.
A Reuters/Ipsos survey released Thursday indicated that Kennedy would pull support from both Biden and former President Donald Trump as an independent, garnering 14% of the vote. Trump and Biden both received 35 percent of the vote in a head-to-head race, but dropped to 33% and 31 percent, respectively, in a three-way matchup with Kennedy where 9 percent said they wouldn’t vote and 13 percent were unsure.
“I take more votes from President Trump than I do from President Biden,” Kennedy previously said on Sept. 25.
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Mary Lou Masters is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
