Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Friday that he would suspend his campaign and endorse Republican Donald Trump, potentially ending his presidential bid that he launched as a Democrat alongside one of the most famous names in American politics.
His campaign indicated he feared staying in the race would sap support from former President Trump, who is in a tight race with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
An environmental lawyer, anti-vaccination activist and the son and nephew of two giants of Democratic politics who were assassinated in the 1960s, Kennedy entered the race as a challenger to President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination in April 2023.
At the time, voters were leaning toward both the aging Biden and the legally troubled Trump, so interest in Kennedy increased. He changed his plans and decided to run as an independent candidate, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll in November 2023 showed Kennedy had the support of 20% of Americans in a three-way contest with Biden and Trump.
He ran a high-profile ad during the February 2024 Super Bowl that referenced his father, U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and uncle, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, drawing ire from much of his high-profile family, who denounced his campaign.
For some time, both the Biden and Trump campaigns indicated they were concerned Kennedy could garner enough support to change the election outcome. He faced an uphill battle in winning a spot on the ballot as an independent candidate, but secured key positions including Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota and North Carolina – half of the competitive swing states expected to determine the outcome of the election.
But as the race rapidly changed over the past two months — Trump survived an assassination attempt and the 81-year-old Biden bowed to pressure from within his own party and handed the campaign reins to Harris — voters’ interest in the 70-year-old Kennedy waned.
A poll by Ipsos earlier this month showed his national support had dropped to 4%, a small number but one that could still be meaningful in a contest as tight as the current Trump-Harris contest.
Her campaign had hinted in the past few days that change was coming, as Kennedy scheduled his Phoenix address. His running mate, Nicole Shanahan, said in an earlier interview that if they both stayed in the race as independent candidates, they could ultimately boost Harris’ chances.
In exchange for supporting Trump, Kennedy was hoping for a job in a potential Trump administration, a super PAC supporting Kennedy told Reuters on Wednesday. He also wanted Trump to allow his political movement to continue in some way, which could include remaining on the ballot in some states.
Kennedy portrayed himself as a political outsider. He said in an interview with Reuters in March that if elected president he would not ban abortion, repeal several provisions of Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act and try to close the southern border to immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally. He also offered firm support for Israel.
Trump’s biggest donor, 82-year-old banking heir Timothy Mellon, has given millions of dollars in support of Kennedy this election cycle, and $75 million in support of Trump, according to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission as of July 31.
FEC filings showed that Shanahan donated more than $15 million to the Kennedy campaign.
In a video of a phone call posted online last month, Trump suggested to Kennedy that the independent candidate could do something to support the Trump campaign. Soon after, the two candidates spoke to each other a day apart at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, trying to get out the vote.
Bears, brain worms
Kennedy said in a video posted online this month that he dumped a dead bear in New York City’s Central Park a decade ago and presented it in a way that made it look like it had been hit by a bike. He said he had “a lot of skeletons” after a former family babysitter accused him of sexual assault. He denied that a photo of him with the barbecued carcass of a large animal was that of a dog.
And then there was the matter of the brain worm. Kennedy had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but it is now fully recovered, a fact revealed by The New York Times and confirmed by the campaign.
These stories caused him to be ridiculed by late-night talk show hosts.
The Democratic Party has been particularly ruthless in its opposition to Kennedy’s candidacy, including legal challenges against his ballot access, as concerns grew that Kennedy could harm the party’s chances in November.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
