HOLBROOK, N.Y.—Sheila Fleming has heard many claims about independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
He’s a conspiracy theorist, critics say. He’s an anti-vaxxer, some believe. Former President Donald Trump has called him the most “radical, far-left candidate” in the race.
Ms. Fleming, 43, doesn’t believe a word, she told The Epoch Times.
Ms. Fleming drove 3 1/2 hours from Pennsylvania to attend the event with her 72-year-old mother, Jean Cassels, who lives in Long Island.
“He’s none of those things. He’s the most credible presidential candidate and the best choice,” she told The Epoch Times before Mr. Kennedy held a voter rally in Long Island on April 28.
Mr. Kennedy is attempting to get on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, a feat he told The Epoch Times he would accomplish by July.
Following the Long Island rally over the weekend, Mr. Kennedy scheduled a May 1 press conference in Brooklyn where his campaign said he would make “a very important announcement.”
Mr. Kennedy entered the 2024 presidential race in April 2023, when he declared his intent to challenge President Joe Biden for the Democratic Party nomination. Claiming that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was “rigging the primary” and not allowing candidates to oppose President Biden, Mr. Kennedy chose to run as an independent last October.
For months, Mr. Kennedy has said in interviews and during campaign stops that he, too, would have a negative opinion of his candidacy if he solely listened to and read “mainstream media outlets like CNN and MSNBC.”
Multiple polls show that Mr. Kennedy has widespread support from voters under 35 and independents. Baby Boomers are more reluctant, he admits, which is why he encourages those voters to watch his long-form interviews on podcasts and to attend rallies.
“Once people hear him first-hand instead of hearing about him from the mainstream media or another candidate, they will be impressed by what he says and by his track record of successfully taking on corrupt corporations and government agencies,” Ms. Fleming said. “If people vote for who they truly want, he can win.”
Ms. Cassels told The Epoch Times that she first learned about Mr. Kennedy when she read his book, “The Real Anthony Fauci.” When her daughter posted photos on social media adorned with a Kennedy 2024 hat and t-shirt, her curiosity about his candidacy was piqued.
“We talked about his views, and a light bulb turned on,” Ms. Cassels said.
“He backs up what he says with solid research. He doesn’t just say something just to say it. He’s a true independent and doesn’t recite party messaging,” she added. “I like Trump’s policies, but he has too much baggage. I don’t think enough independents and moderates will vote for him.”
Ms. Fleming smiled as she listened to her mother’s comments.
“There are people who say voting for an independent is a wasted vote. It’s not a wasted vote when you vote your conscience and your beliefs.”
While the crowd of more than 1,000 waited for Mr. Kennedy to take the stage, a video played detailing the Oct. 9, 2023 event when he “declared independence from the Democrat Party and all political parties” and decided to run as an independent.
Moments after he started his address, Mr. Kennedy told the audience that the campaign would announce “three more states where I’m on the ballot.”
Mr. Kennedy’s father, the late Robert F. Kennedy, was a New York senator and ran for president in 1968. He was shot and killed after a campaign appearance in California.
“This is my state and where I vote. It’s important for me to get on the ballot in New York,” Mr. Kennedy said.
New York state is one of the most challenging states to get ballot access in, Mr. Kennedy said.
He noted that his campaign has 1,000 volunteers in the state’s 63 counties gathering signatures. New York state requires independents to collect and submit at least 45,000 valid signatures in a 45-day window, Mr. Kennedy explained. He said that the campaign has more than 20,000 signatures and will have more than 90,000 by the deadline.
Mr. Kennedy is officially on the ballot in Michigan and Utah. His campaign said he has collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot in California, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Nevada.
During his address in Long Island, Mr. Kennedy told attendees to “vote out of hope” and “not vote out of fear.”
If he can persuade Americans to make that choice, he will “win the election easily,” he said.
Internal polls show Mr. Kennedy beating President Biden head-to-head and President Trump head-to-head, he said on April 29. Multiple polls have shown he leads all candidates in favorability rating, and surveys show he has widespread support among voters under 35, independents, and Latinos.
Many Americans are voting out of fear, he said.
“Their (Democrats) only strategy is to try to keep me off the ballot and then to make everybody terrified of Donald Trump. On the other side, they do the same thing,” Mr. Kennedy explained.
“When somebody is telling you to vote out of fear, they are trying to manipulate you into abandoning your values,” he added.
After finishing his speech, Mr. Kennedy signed a petition to get his name on the ballot.
Outside the venue, a mobile billboard funded by the Democratic National Committee showed video messages claiming that Mr. Kennedy is funded by President Trump’s MAGA movement. When approached by a campaign volunteer, the vehicle’s driver signed a petition to include Mr. Kennedy on the New York ballot.
Mr. Kennedy compared his campaign to that of his father in 1968. Then Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was running against an incumbent Democrat president, Lyndon Johnson, during a controversial war (Vietnam) that divided the country.
The younger Mr. Kennedy told the story of how he didn’t think his father could win, but then President Johnson dropped out of the race.
More than half of American voters have said in several polls that they don’t want to see a rematch between Presidents Trump and Biden.
“If there were ever a time in the past 200 years that an independent candidate could win the presidency, it’s now. Now is the time to show the political establishment that, this time around, Americans are not going to be manipulated by fear. Now is the time to vote for hope and a vision for the future. Now is the time to vote not for the lesser of two evils, but for a candidate that you actually want to see as president,” Mr. Kennedy said.
Americans who vote for President Trump or President Biden will get “more of the same” if either win in November, Mr. Kennedy said.
The two “differ on culture war issues like abortion, guns, and the border” which “are important issues, but neither is talking about issues like the debt, which is $34 trillion.”
“The service on that debt is more than our military spending. In five years, 50 cents out of every dollar collected and taxes are gonna go to servicing the debt.
“President Trump and President Biden ran up the debt together in just four years each. They ran more spending than all the previous presidents going back to George Washington,” Mr. Kennedy explained.
President Trump and President Biden don’t talk about the chronic disease epidemic, AI, and the “corrupt merger between state and corporate power which is undermining democracy,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“President Trump and President Biden don’t have the capacity to address it because they’re part of that system.”
If elected, Mr. Kennedy has vowed to combat the prevalence of chronic disease, an issue he believes his opponents should talk about and plan for in their platforms.
“The only thing that Republicans and Democrats argue about when you talk about healthcare is who’s gonna pay for it. Is it Obamacare? Public-private options? HMOs? Corporations? You? It’s like moving deckchairs around on the Titanic. It’s a sinking ship,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“When my uncle was President, 6 percent of the GDP went to healthcare. Today, it’s about 18 to 19 percent. Almost all of that is for chronic disease. It’s five times our military budget. It’s unsustainable.”
In Long Island, Mr. Kennedy also criticized how President Trump and then-President Biden responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. “had the highest death rate of any country” during the COVID-19 pandemic, he noted.
“We had 16 percent of the COVID deaths and we have 4.2 percent of the world’s population. Whatever we did, it was wrong,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“Locking down was wrong. Shutting down businesses was wrong. Telling you that you’re going to lose your job unless you submit to an unwanted medical intervention was wrong. Preventing us from accessing therapeutic products the doctor recommended was wrong.”
If another pandemic arrives, President Trump and President Biden will respond the same way, Mr. Kennedy said.
After the April 28 rally, Ms. Cassels expressed enthusiasm for what Mr. Kennedy said.
New York state is a difficult one for non-Democrats to win, Ms. Cassels acknowledged.
“But I’m voting for him (Kennedy) because I like what he stands for. I don’t think Trump can beat Biden, and I don’t want Biden to win again.”
