A majority of voters said former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s endorsement of former President Trump would not change their view of the Republican candidate. According to a national opinion poll It was released on Thursday.
A Quinnipiac University poll found that 64% of voters said Kennedy's endorsement of Trump has no impact on their view of the 45th president. Nearly a fifth of respondents, or 19%, said Kennedy's endorsement, which became official last week, has made them have a more “favorable” view of the former president. About 15% of respondents said their “favorable” view of Trump has become less favorable.
The poll found that 42 percent of respondents had an unfavorable view of Kennedy, while about 32 percent had a favorable view of the environmental lawyer and 24 percent said they hadn't heard much about the former White House candidate.
“RFK Jr., whose chances of running for president are plummeting, has joined Donald Trump's campaign,” said Tim Malloy, a polling analyst at Quinnipiac University. “But is he an asset or a liability? Independents, who are so important to the election, are not likely to be so influenced by him that they will change their views of Trump.”
Kennedy initially ran for president as a Democrat but left the party in October to run as an independent. His approval rating has risen slightly in the polls, reaching the high teens in some national surveys, but has recently dipped into the single digits.
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, dropped her presidential bid last week to endorse Trump, saying she would work to get her name removed from the ballot in battleground states that could decide Trump's election in November, and that she would remain on the ballot in most states, both Democratic and Republican.
Several key battleground states, including Michigan and Wisconsin, have refused to remove the former independent presidential candidate from their ballots in this November's general election.
The poll was conducted Aug. 23-27 among 1,611 voters and has a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points.
