While President Joe Biden faces mounting questions about his mental fitness and an impeachment inquiry and former President Donald Trump continues to fight legal battles, 2024 Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s popularity is on the rise.
A Harvard CAPS/Harris survey released last week, for example, showed that Mr. Kennedy has a 19 percent net favorability rating over President Trump and President Biden.
The survey indicated that 49 percent of the respondents have a favorable view of Mr. Kennedy while 30 percent have an unfavorable opinion. President Trump received a 49 percent favorability rating, but 46 percent of the respondents have an unfavorable view. President Biden saw a 45 percent favorability mark compared to 49 percent who had an unfavorable opinion.
The same poll reported that President Trump was ahead in a three-way race with 39 percent support compared to 33 percent for President Biden and 19 percent for Mr. Kennedy.
In a Suffolk University/USA Today poll released on Oct. 23, 37 percent of registered voters said they would back President Biden, 36 percent reported they would support President Trump, and 13 percent expressed interest in Mr. Kennedy. Cornel West, who is also running as an Independent, received 4 percent support.
Mr. Kennedy received 23 percent backing from independent voters, 9 percent from Republicans, and 7 percent from Democrats in the survey. He also saw the highest number of voters who were asked their second choice for president at 26 percent. Mr. West received 16 percent, President Trump 6 percent, and President Biden 5 percent.
The Suffolk University poll results followed a Harvard CAPS/Harris survey released last week showing President Trump with 39 percent support, President Biden at 33 percent, and Mr. Kennedy at 19 percent in a three-way race.
Nine percent of the respondents said they were undecided. When those voters were asked who they would support if they had to choose, President Trump saw 42 percent, President Biden 36 percent, and Mr. Kennedy 22 percent.
In that same poll, 68 percent of Democrats, 57 percent of Republicans, and 78 percent in the Independent/Other category said that the country needs another choice as president besides President Trump or President Biden.
When Mr. Kennedy announced that he would run as an Independent instead of a Democrat on Oct. 9 in Philadelphia, he said, “There have been independent candidates before. But this time is different. This time, the independent is going to win.”
In Philadelphia—and at Town Hall tour stops across Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Ohio last week—Mr. Kennedy reinforced his confidence in a path to victory as an Independent.
“Media pundits are gonna tell you that we don’t have any chance and have given me a couple of first names. One of them is ‘long-shot candidate,’” he said.
“They say my impact is only going to draw votes from the other candidates. The Democrats are frightened that I’m gonna spoil the election for President Biden and the Republicans are frightened that I’m gonna spoil it for President Trump. The truth is, they’re both right.”
The Oct. 24 Suffolk University poll results reflected previous favorability rating surveys conducted earlier this year.
After a House hearing on censorship that saw Democrats attempt to prevent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from testifying, a Harvard-Harris poll showed that he had a higher favorability rating than any other presidential candidate.
Mr. Kennedy saw a favorable rating of 47 percent and an unfavorable mark of 26 percent, according to the survey, which was released on July 23 and conducted from July 19 to July 20 among 2,068 registered voters.
Former President Donald Trump had a favorability rating of 45 percent compared with a 49 percent unfavorability number. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis received a 40 percent favorable rating and 37 percent unfavorable, and President Joe Biden had 39 percent favorable and 53 percent unfavorable ratings.
Mr. Kennedy also had the highest net favorability of all 2024 presidential candidates in a June poll from The Economist/YouGov.
For months after announcing his candidacy in April to challenge President Joe Biden for the 2024 Democrat nomination, Mr. Kennedy told media outlets and supporters, “I’m a Democrat,” when asked if he would consider running as an independent or third-party candidate.
A poll commissioned by the American Values 2024 political action committee working to get Mr. Kennedy elected president, conducted by Zogby Strategies and released Oct. 2, showed that if Mr. Kennedy ran as an Independent or third-party candidate in a race against President Biden and President Donald Trump, he would start at 19 percent compared to 38 percent for both President Biden and President Trump.
The results indicate that Mr. Kennedy is “pulling just as much from Trump as he is from Biden,” American Values 2024 co-chair Tony Lyons told The Epoch Times.
“Critics of independents and third-party candidates always claim that they split the vote and serve as a spoiler, but what we are seeing is that people are disillusioned with both major parties and they are tired of partisan politics,” Mr. Lyons said. “People are tired of being told what to do, what to think, and who to vote for by the Democrat and Republican parties, and they are open to an alternative candidate.”
Following Mr. Kennedy’s Oct. 9 announcement that he would run as an Independent, the Republican National Committee released a statement that said, “Make no mistake—a Democrat in Independent’s clothing is still a Democrat. RFK Jr. cannot hide from his record of endorsing Hillary [Clinton], supporting the Green New Deal, fighting against the Keystone Pipeline, and praising AOC’s [New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s] tax hikes. He is your typical elitist liberal and voters won’t be fooled.
“American families deserve commonsense leadership that will return America’s energy independence, stop Bidenflation, secure our border, and get our country back on track, which is why our Republican nominee will be the next president of the United States.”
President Trump’s campaign said in a statement that “voters should not be deceived by anyone who pretends to have conservative values.”
“The fact is RFK has a disturbing background steeped in radical, liberal positions. Whether he’s a China sympathizer, denigrating gun owners, promoting business-killing green policies, or supporting on-demand abortion, an RFK candidacy is nothing more than a vanity project for a liberal Kennedy looking to cash in on his family’s name.”
Mr. Kennedy insists that he is a different kind of “anti-establishment candidate.”
“There have been anti-establishment candidates before, but none who understand how to get that job done. I know how to get the job done,” Mr. Kennedy said in Columbus, Ohio.
“I’ve been fighting corporate corruption and suing government agencies for 40 years. I know how they work and I know how to clean them up.
“And unlike any president since 1963, I will stand up to the military-industrial complex. I will cash in the peace dividend, and bring our troops home with honor. I will rebuild America’s strength from the inside out.
“What really terrifies the elites, though, is not me. It is what I represent—a populist movement that defies the left-right division,” Mr. Kennedy continued. “As an independent. I’m not going to be locked into either political parties. I can get compromise on both sides because they won’t feel like they’re betraying their tribal base.
A town hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, reflected the wide range of voters who attend Mr. Kennedy’s events, and their thoughts about the candidate.
Setys Kelly, a conservative Republican who lives in Springfield, Ohio, told The Epoch Times that she likes Mr. Kennedy’s stances that support medical freedom and chastise COVID-19 shutdowns, but she added that she voted for President Trump before and will again.
“He [Mr. Kennedy] is a liberal Democrat who believes in policies that I don’t support,” Ms. Kelly said, adding that “it’s important for President Trump to address the issues that he [Mr. Kennedy] focuses on, like fighting corporate and government corruption.”
Sam Arlinghaus, who worked in the medical equipment industry before recently opening a small business, believes that Mr. Kennedy “related to a lot of people who are in the middle, and those are people who Trump and Biden don’t appeal to.”
“RFK Jr.’s stance on the First Amendment and how that pertains to social media is what means a lot to me. So many people don’t see their rights being taken away,” Mr. Arlinghaus said. I voted for Trump and in [20]16 and [20]20, but he lost my support when he handed over the keys to Tony Fauci and Big Pharma. I don’t like how Trump handled the COVID response.”
Initially, Mr. Arlinghaus said he was concerned about Mr. Kennedy’s independent run because “I thought it would really split the vote between Democrats and Republicans, and that it could lead to a Democrat squeezing by [in the general election], but Trump is a polarizing person who people either love or can’t stand, and Kennedy is someone who has broad appeal. He can get votes from people who would never support Trump.”
Lee Patton is a truck driver in Cincinnati who is “not a fan of Trump.” A Democrat, Mr. Patton said that he attended Mr. Kennedy’s Town Hall gathering because he wants to hear directly what the candidate thinks.
“I’m a truck driver, so I listen to a lot of talk shows on satellite radio. I’m only hearing one side about him, and it is all negative and they say he is a conspiracy theorist and an anti-vaxxer. I’m here because I just want to hear from his own mouth what his beliefs and ideas are, and not just rely on what I hear on radio and TV.”
Mr. Kennedy understands why voters like Mr. Patton have those opinions.
“If you live in a certain bubble where you’re only watching MSNBC and CNN and reading The New York Times, you will have a different view of me than you would if you watch a podcast where I am interviewed or if you attend a town hall and listen to me speak,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“If I was living in that bubble, I'd have a very low opinion of myself as well. They won’t interview me. They will distort what I say, so people who watch and read those media outlets will have a distorted view of who I am.”
