(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Conservatives who found themselves smitten with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s classical liberalism and distrust of the deep state may wish to reconsider their position following Kennedy’s plan to run as an independent.
Many celebrated the news—with the assumption being that he’s free to manage his maverick campaign outside the constraints of the corrupt Democratic National Committee, which had refused to allow him to debate incumbent President Joe Biden, while still functioning as an effective “spoiler” to draw votes from the center-left.
However, a recent statement from Kennedy indicated that, as a third-party candidate, he expected to pull more support from former President Donald Trump than from the Democrats, who now seem to have disowned the political scion whose family name was once synonymous with party politics.
RFK Jr: "I take more votes from President Trump than I do from President Biden." pic.twitter.com/HtyUtAr0yd
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) October 2, 2023
Since announcing his candidacy, RFK Jr. has been frozen out not only by the DNC, but also by left-wing and mainstream media, who promptly attacked him as a fringe candidate.
Instead, he has opted to conduct interviews with well-respected figures in the conservative media, as well as red-pilled liberals like himself—including Jordan Peterson, Russell Brand and Joe Rogan—who have been scorned by the Left for their free thinking.
Despite polling as high as 25% among Democrat voters, the party refused to give him a platform, prompting him to recently to re-evaluate his options.
“I don’t know what I would do, but if the Democratic Party just tells me you cannot win, you’re not welcome to participate, I would look at other options,” he said in a recent interview with KNX news.
“They’ve been very open that they do not want anybody running against President Biden and that he is the candidate,” Kennedy added.
While many conservatives still likely expected to support the Republican candidate, the consensus was that if a Democrat were to win, Kennedy would at least be tolerable, and might even be the right person to begin healing some of the nation’s wounds given his unique connection with history.
“He certainly appeals to conservatives more than anybody in the Democratic party,” said James Inman, a conservative voter from South Carolina.
“I think he’s conservative at heart, just like I think JFK was conservative at heart,” Inman added, referring to Kennedy’s slain uncle, former President John F. Kennedy. “I would certainly vote for [JFK] again if he was alive today so I’ll certainly vote for his relative if that’s the case.”
Pollsters surveyed people on hypothetical elections between Trump, Biden and a generic third-party candidate that revealed the Independent candidate garnered 17% total support, with Trump at 40% and Biden at 38%.
When Kennedy became the third-party candidate in the mock poll, Biden and Trump tied at 38% and RFK Jr boosted independent support to 19%.
Kennedy is currently polling at 17% among Democrats. Comparatively, Biden is polling at 67%.
He also addressed his well publicized vaccine opposition in the same interview, clarifying that while he is against the COVID vaccines he is not completely anti-vax.
