The lack of excitement many Americans feel about a presidential election rematch has increased interest in alternatives to the major parties’ candidates, especially Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose famous name has helped him gain fame for his independent bid.
Kennedy is a huge gamble to win the Electoral College votes, let alone the presidency. But his campaign events have drawn large crowds of supporters and people interested in his message. He plans to announce his vice presidential nominee later this month in Oakland, California, raising expectations that he will choose New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers or former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura.
Here’s a look at his campaign and what he stood for:
Kennedy, 70, is a member of perhaps the country’s most famous political dynasty. His uncle was President John F. Kennedy. His father was a U.S. attorney general and senator before running for the Democratic nomination for president. Both were murdered.
RFK Jr. built his own reputation as an activist, author and lawyer who fought for environmental causes such as clean water.
More recently, his activism has degenerated into conspiracies and contradicts the scientific consensus, especially on vaccines. Some members of his family have publicly criticized his views.
Kennedy founded the Waterkeeper Alliance, which works to secure clean water, and Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group that has seen its reach grow rapidly during the pandemic.
Children’s Health Defense has an ongoing lawsuit against a number of news organizations, including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy parted ways with the group when he announced his run for president, but is listed as one of the lawyers in the lawsuit.
He is married to actress Cheryl Hines.
Kennedy’s need to collect thousands of signatures to get on the ballot has taken him to places where presidential candidates are rarely seen, including Hawaii, Wyoming and West Virginia.
At events in Phoenix and Las Vegas, hundreds of supporters lined up outside for several hours before he arrived. He attracts a legion of fans, many of whom have listened extensively to Kennedy’s interviews on podcasts or YouTube videos.
In Nevada, huge images and photos were projected onto three walls while upbeat music played. There were drinks and merchandise for sale.
Kennedy speaks in a quiet, tense voice, sometimes halting, due to a neurological condition called spasmodic dysphonia.
Kennedy profiles himself as a truth-teller with a track record of fighting for the middle class against powerful interests. He points to lawsuits he has won against major companies such as Monsanto and DuPont.
“I can fix this country,” he said in Las Vegas in February. ‘All these institutions that intimidate normal politicians, I have denounced them all. … If you sue these agencies, you’ll get a Ph.D. in corporate capture and how to unravel it.” Corporate capture refers to private interests using their influence to control government decision-making, for example when they help draft legislation.
Kennedy has been critical of American support for Ukraine and Israel’s war against Hamas. He wants to reduce military spending and health care because of the impact on budget deficits, and combat rising housing costs so that young people can afford to buy homes.
Kennedy has found a loyal following among people distrustful of institutions and among those who believe government is in the control of corporations, especially pharmaceutical companies.
He does not shy away from his controversial views on healthcare and vaccines. He wants to dismantle the public health bureaucracy and says he would immediately tell the National Institutes of Health to refocus research from infectious diseases and vaccines to chronic diseases.
Kennedy insists he is not against vaccines and claims he has never told the public to avoid vaccination. But he has repeatedly made clear his opposition to vaccines. He said on a podcast “there is no vaccine that is safe and effective” and has urged people to resist CDC guidelines on when children should be vaccinated.
While there are rare cases of people having serious reactions to vaccines, the billions of doses administered worldwide provide real proof that they are safe. The World Health Organization says vaccines prevent as many as 5 million deaths every year.
The United States has a long history of rejecting independent or third-party presidential candidates. In fact, George Washington was the last president to win without the support of a party, and he did so before there were political parties.
The last third party candidate to reach the White House was Abraham Lincoln with the newly formed Republican Party.
The last third-party candidate to exceed single digits in the popular vote was Ross Perot, a businessman who won 19% in 1992 and 8% in 1996. But he won zero electoral votes.
And while the independent share of the electorate is growing, it is still overshadowed by voters who consistently support Republican or Democratic candidates, even if they identify as independent.
In other words: the chances are great.
Kennedy’s case for optimism hinges on his relatively strong performance in a number of national polls. Polls during the 2016 presidential campaign showed libertarian Gary Johnson’s support regularly in the high single or low double digits, but he ultimately received only about 3% of the vote nationally.
Horse race polls are also notoriously unreliable this far out from the election, and many Americans don’t know who Kennedy is. For example, a February AP-NORC poll found that 29% of Americans do not know enough about Kennedy to have an opinion of him.
Some people who say they would support him may also be responding to his famous last name rather than his actual pitch as a candidate. A CNN/SSRS poll conducted last spring found that 20% of people who said they would consider supporting Kennedy for the Democratic nomination — for which he was running at the time — said their support was tied to his last name and Kennedy family relations. Only 12% said this was because of support for his views and policies.
But before that matters, he has to get on the ballot.
Forget about being elected; Just running for president is a difficult process, especially for non-party candidates like Kennedy.
Each state has different rules, requiring an army of lawyers to make sure everything is done right. Most states require thousands of signatures.
A pro-Kennedy super PAC is helping pay for Kennedy’s voting work in several states. His allies formed a political party to facilitate the process in some states by becoming recognized as a party and appointing Kennedy as their candidate.
He has been approved for the Utah ballot. His campaign and super PAC say he has collected enough signatures to qualify in several other states, including the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, although election officials in those states have not yet confirmed his candidacy.
Kennedy has also said he has spoken with Libertarian Party officials, although it is not clear what a bond between the two might look like.
Kennedy is looking to his family and his allies in the anti-vaccine world to staff his campaign and build a leadership team that has little experience working in politics.
His campaign manager is Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, his daughter-in-law who served as a CIA officer and has never worked in politics before.
Its communications director, Del Bigtree, is founder of the Informed Consent Action Network, an anti-vaccine group. He also produced “Vaxxed,” an anti-vaccine film that promoted the discredited idea that the vaccines cause autism.
Press Secretary Stefanie Spear was an editor for the news website Children’s Health Defense. Charles Eisenstein, a New Age author, is a consultant.
Kennedy also has staff and volunteers spread across the states, focused on collecting signatures to get him on the ballot.
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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.