Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made the long-awaited announcement Friday that he is withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race and said in a Pennsylvania court filing that he will endorse former President Donald Trump.
Kennedy, 70, made the announcement just days after speculation began that he planned to drop out of the campaign and endorse Trump instead.
Sources previously told The Washington Post that he was influenced by discussions between Trump’s allies and his own campaign and that he had been snubbed by Democrats throughout the election.
In his speech on Friday, he criticized the unprecedented events of the 2024 election so far and slammed Democrats for installing Vice President Kamala Harris without having contested a primary.
“When the expected debate failure sparked a palace coup against President Biden, those same shadow DNC operatives appointed his replacement, also without an election, and installed a candidate who was so unpopular with voters that he withdrew in 2020 without winning a single delegate,” he said.
Trump’s endorsement was not a certainty as of Thursday, officials said, but speculation grew after the former president announced that a “special guest” would be appearing that day just a few miles from where Kennedy Jr. was to be.
Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, also suggested earlier this week that she might drop out of the race to “work with” Trump to stop Harris from winning.
Shortly after the revelation, Trump declared he was “honored” to have Kennedy’s endorsement.
Trump, 78, reportedly met with Kennedy in Milwaukee last month on the first day of the Republican National Convention in an attempt to garner his endorsement.
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign is said to have rejected an offer to meet with descendants of the Kennedy family.
Kennedy originally launched his campaign against Biden as a Democrat in April 2023.
He later switched political party affiliation to Independent in October, criticizing both the Republican and Democratic parties for forming a “one-party dictatorship.”
A former Democrat turned independent, his election policies have attracted the attention of both liberals and conservatives due to his anti-war, environmental protection and coronavirus skepticism stance.
Those at the rally were enthusiastic about the idea of voting for him, some of whom were considering voting for an independent for the first time. His supporters told The Washington Post they see him as a better option than Trump or Biden, and are attracted to his questioning of government and approach to the environment.
Kennedy has risen in the polls, especially since becoming an independent and stepping out of Biden’s shadow to forge his own path. Polls have him at more than 20% approval rating, and some of his supporters have compared him to Ross Perot, who won significant support as a third-party candidate in 1992 and 1996.
The biggest challenge for Kennedy, an independent, was getting on the ballot in every state, a process his campaign said would cost millions of dollars, be time-consuming and have involved several lawsuits.
As of Friday, his campaign maintained he had either completed or was in the process of petitioning in all 50 states. It was unclear how many states he would still appear on the ballot in given his suspension.
RFK Jr. began to falter after failing to reach the minimum electoral vote threshold needed to debate Trump and Biden in June, and his campaign also faced criticism after his running mate disagreed with him on abortion, leading to a purge.
Rumours about his past then circulated, including claims that he suffered from a “brain parasite” and reveals that he left a dead bear in Central Park.
The Trump campaign and allies of the former president had been trying to secure Kennedy’s endorsement for months, with Donald Trump Jr. in particular worried that the independent could siphon votes and become an unpredictable factor in a close race with Harris.
Leaked video shows Kennedy on the phone discussing the election with Trump, raising intrigue as to what concessions he might have been willing to make in order to ultimately support the 45th president.
