RFK Jr the kingmaker: Surprising way Kennedy could decide who will end up in the White House… as he gets his name on another state’s ballot

As the November elections approach, the presence of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is causing concern. on the ballot for both major political candidates.

Both the Biden and Trump campaigns are paying close attention to Kennedy’s progress, especially after he managed to secure his name on another state’s ballot — this time in California.

The Trump campaign fears he will pull votes away, essentially handing Biden a second term, as he says more Trump supporters have switched to RFK than Biden supporters. NewsNation.

The Golden State is the third state election that Kennedy and running mate Nicole Shanahan have officially qualified for — the others being Utah and Michigan.

California is the state with the most electoral college votes in the country.

The pair have also managed to collect enough signatures to access ballots in seven other states, including New Hampshire, Nevada, Hawaii, North Carolina, Idaho, Nebraska and Iowa, but these have not yet been validated by election officials.

Kennedy had run as a Democrat, but switched his ticket to an independent position last fall and is aiming to appear on state ballots across the country in an effort to take on Biden and Trump, arguing that both are unqualified to serve.

Although his campaign is focused on collecting signatures from all fifty states before the deadline, experts have suggested that Kennedy only needs a handful of key battleground states to have a potential impact on the outcome on Election Day.

A recent poll from The hill suggests Kennedy has almost 8.5 percent of the vote and is far behind Trump’s polls at just over 42 percent, while Biden is close at 41 percent.

Depending on the poll, Trump has a national lead over Biden of one to four points, including in most battleground states.

But NewsNation suggests that RFK would likely take votes away from Trump, putting Biden in front with a two-point lead.

The outlet suggests that voters who were more likely to vote for Trump will switch to Kennedy, more so than voters who were likely to vote for Biden.

Third-party and independent candidates face long odds in an American political system largely built around two major parties.

Biden’s campaign team sees RFK Jr.’s presence. in the race as a threat and has assembled a team of full-time staffers committed to highlighting the contrast between the president and Kennedy.

Kennedy, known for his advocacy against vaccines, has used podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience and social media in an effort to attract younger voters dissatisfied with the choice between Biden and Trump, who are 81 and 77 years old, respectively.

While Kennedy wouldn’t have enough appeal to secure a presidential victory, he could very well gain enough support to be a spoiler for one of the front-runners.

Even with less than 10 percent of the vote, RFK Jr.’s presence is irritating. Donald Trump, who posted a rant on Truth Social last week.

‘RFK Jr. is a Democrat, a radical left liberal appointed to help Crooked Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of the United States, get re-elected,” Trump wrote.

“A vote for Junior would essentially be a wasted protest vote that could go either way, but would only swing against Democrats if Republicans knew the true story about him,” Trump added.

Kennedy quickly fired back at

“President Trump’s tirade against me is a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims best resolved in the American tradition of presidential debate,” Kennedy tweeted.

Republican strategist Alex Conant said Trump’s tirade is a clear sign that he is concerned about the Kennedy effect.

“You don’t attack someone you’re not worried about at all,” Conant said The hill.

“If you look at the kind of media that RFK does, look at his very populist message, his history of embracing conspiracy theories – there’s a lot that makes Trump World nervous.

“Democrats and Republicans are both in a race to define Kennedy because in a tight race his supporters could be crucial,” Conant said.

Last week, Trump said in a radio interview that he believed Kennedy’s entry into the race was harmful to both him and Biden.

“They say he’s hurting Biden. I guess I’m not sure that’s true. I think he’s probably hurting both of us,” Trump said while speaking to conservative John Fredericks. “But he might hurt Biden a little more, you don’t know.”

When Trump previously believed that Kennedy’s presence was likely to hurt Biden’s chances more, he was not critical of him.

Trump released a recent video in which he says, “If I were a Democrat, I would root for RFK Jr. every time.” votes over Biden’. He has Kennedy Jr. sometimes criticized as ‘radically left’ than Biden.

“Depending on which poll you look at, Kennedy faces one of two problems,” said Republican strategist Doug Heye.

“This is one of the reasons that it’s going to be very difficult to really try to predict 2024 accurately, because it comes down to a handful of states, and that means a handful of voters. And what RFK means for either candidate in either of those states, I don’t think we know yet,” Heye added.

For Democrats, it is more about how Kennedy could hurt Biden in various swing states.

It brings back memories of 2016, when Green Party candidate Jill Stein won enough voters in swing states that arguably helped Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Earlier this month, RFK acknowledged how even his closest family members, including his sister Kerry Kennedy, support Biden.

“Some don’t like me running away,” Kennedy said of his relatives.

But the Biden campaign’s move signals how seriously the president’s team is taking the long-awaited nominee, using the lingering Democratic magic of his last name to siphon support away from the incumbent president.

Kerry Kennedy called Biden “my hero” and said — without naming her brother — that the family wanted to make their support for Biden’s re-election “crystal clear.”

Biden, who keeps a bust of Robert F. Kennedy in the Oval Office, said the endorsements were “an incredible honor.”