With many Americans not feeling excited about a presidential rematch, interest in candidates to replace the major party candidates has increased, but Robert F. No one is more interested than Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy is a very long way from winning Electoral College votes, let alone the presidency. However, his campaign attracted large numbers of supporters and people interested in his message.
RFK JR’s representative says he is “considering” Aaron Rodgers as running mate
He is expected to announce his running mate later this month in Oakland, Calif., with expectations rising that he will choose either New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers or former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura. . Kennedy’s campaign manager said Saturday that Kennedy made his choice, but he did not say who he chose. She said she also interviewed Nicole Shanahan, a California philanthropist who funded a Super Bowl ad for Kennedy, and Mike Rowe, star of the TV show “Dirty Jobs.”
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at a campaign event in Philadelphia on October 9, 2023. With many Americans not feeling excited about a presidential rematch, interest in candidates to replace major party candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who helped create buzz for an independent candidacy, has increased. There is. He is scheduled to announce his running mate later this month in Oakland, California, and there are rumors that he may choose New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
His campaign and his arguments are as follows:
Who is RFK Jr.?
Kennedy, 70, is a member of perhaps the most famous political dynasty in the nation. His uncle was President John F. Kennedy. His father served as attorney general and U.S. senator before seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Both were assassinated.
RFK Jr. built a unique reputation as an activist, author, and lawyer fighting for environmental issues such as clean water.
Along the way, his activism veered toward conspiracy theories and contradicted the scientific consensus, most notoriously regarding vaccines. Some members of his family have publicly criticized his views. His sister Kerry Kennedy posted a photo on social media of dozens of family members posing with President Joe Biden at a St. Patrick’s Day reception at the White House.
Kennedy founded the Waterkeeper Alliance, which works to ensure clean water, and founded a small anti-vaccination organization at Children’s Health Defense, a behemoth of a movement whose reach has rapidly expanded during the pandemic. .
Children’s Health Defense sues multiple news organizations, including The Associated Press, for violating antitrust laws by taking steps to identify misinformation about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines is happening. Mr. Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his presidential bid, but is listed as one of the group’s lawyers in the lawsuit.
He is married to actress Cheryl Hines.
What is Kennedy’s campaign like?
The need to gather thousands of signatures to fill out the ballot took Mr. Kennedy to places rarely seen by presidential candidates, including Hawaii, Wyoming and West Virginia.
At events in Phoenix and Las Vegas, hundreds of supporters lined up hours before his scheduled arrival. He attracts a large number of fans, many of whom listen intently to Kennedy’s interviews on podcasts and his YouTube videos.
In Nevada, large-scale graphics and photos were projected onto three walls while upbeat music played. Drinks and goods were also on sale.
Kennedy speaks in a quiet, strained, sometimes halting voice due to a neurological disorder called spasmodic dysphonia.
what is he talking about?
Kennedy positions himself as a truth-teller with a track record of fighting powerful interests on behalf of the middle class. He cites successful lawsuits against giant corporations such as Monsanto and DuPont.
“I can rebuild this country,” he said in Las Vegas in February. “All these institutions that blackmail ordinary politicians, I sued all of them. … When you prosecute these institutions, you get a Ph.D. on corporate capture and how to unravel it.” What is a corporate takeover? , refers to the use of their influence by private interests to control government decision-making. For example, if you are helping draft a bill.
President Kennedy has criticized U.S. aid to Ukraine and supports Israel’s war against Hamas. He wants to cut military and health spending because of its impact on the budget deficit, and fight rising housing costs so young people can buy homes.
Kennedy has become a staunch supporter among those who distrust the system and believe the government is controlled by corporations, especially pharmaceutical companies.
He hasn’t shied away from controversial views on health care and vaccines. He wants to dismantle the public health bureaucracy and said he would immediately direct the National Institutes of Health to refocus his research away from infectious diseases and vaccines and toward chronic diseases.
President Kennedy insists he is not anti-vaccine and has never told people to avoid vaccination. But he has repeatedly made clear his opposition to vaccines. “There is no safe and effective vaccine,” he said on his podcast, urging people to resist the CDC’s guidelines on when children should be vaccinated.
Although serious reactions to vaccines are rare, the billions of doses administered worldwide provide real-world evidence that vaccines are safe. The World Health Organization says that vaccines prevent 5 million deaths each year.
Will he be able to win?
The United States has a long history of rejecting independent or third-party presidential candidates. In fact, the last president to win without the support of a political party was George Washington, and he did it before political parties existed.
The last third-party candidate to reach the White House was Abraham Lincoln of the newly established Republican Party.
The last third-party candidate to win more than a single-digit percentage of the popular vote was businessman Ross Perot, who won 19% in 1992 and 8% in 1996, but won There were zero electors.
And while independents are increasing as a percentage of the electorate, they still dwarf voters who consistently support Republican and Democratic candidates, even if they identify as independents.
In other words, the odds are long.
Kennedy’s optimism hinges on his relatively strong showing in several national polls. Opinion polls during the 2016 presidential campaign showed Liberal Gary Johnson’s approval ratings were consistently in the high single digits or low double digits, but in the end he received only about 3% of the national vote. There wasn’t.
Polls for horse races far from elections are also notoriously unreliable, and many Americans don’t know who Kennedy is. For example, a February AP-NORC poll found that 29% of Americans don’t know enough about Kennedy to have an opinion.
Some who say they support him may be responding more to his famous last name than to his actual pitch as a candidate. According to a CNN/SSRS poll conducted last spring, 20% of people said they would consider supporting Kennedy as the Democratic candidate, who was running for office at the time. He said it had something to do with his ties to the Kennedy family. Only 12% said it was because they supported his views or policies.
But for it to matter, he has to be on the ballot.
How does he get on the ballot?
Forget about being elected. Simply running for president is a difficult process, especially for a non-partisan candidate like Kennedy.
Each state has different rules and requires an army of lawyers to make sure everything is done correctly. Most states require thousands of signatures.
A pro-Kennedy super PAC is helping pay for Kennedy’s ballot access efforts in several states. His allies established a party that was recognized as a political party and made the process easier in some states by having Kennedy as its candidate.
He was approved to vote in Utah. His campaign and super PAC say he has collected enough signatures to qualify in several other battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, but election officials in those states still say he has does not recognize the candidacy of
President Kennedy also said he had spoken with officials from the Libertarian Party, but it was unclear what a partnership between the two parties would look like.
Who is working for him?
Mr. Kennedy is building a leadership team with little political experience, relying on family members and anti-vaccination allies to recruit for his campaign.
His campaign manager was Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, whose daughter-in-law was a former CIA officer but had never worked in politics.
His communications director, Del Bigtree, is the founder of the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network. He also produced the anti-vaccine film “Vaxxed,” which promotes disbelief that vaccines cause autism.
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Press Secretary Stephanie Speer was the editor of the Children’s Health Defense News website. New Age author Charles Eisenstein is an advisor.
Mr. Kennedy also deployed staff and volunteers to each state to focus on gathering signatures to get on the ballot.
