Even President Trump himself is starting to recognize the potential issue at hand.
Moreover, an analysis of campaign finance data conducted by POLITICO reveals a significant disparity in the level of support for Kennedy among former Trump donors compared to those who previously donated to Biden.
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According to Republican consultant Alice Stewart, if the Trump campaign fails to recognize this as a concern, they are being delusional. Stewart asserts that the campaign should approach this situation with the understanding that they cannot afford to lose any voters, especially to a third-party candidate who shares some of Trump’s policy ideas.
According to Jim McLaughlin, a pollster for Trump, the consensus is that RFK Jr. will have a greater negative impact on Joe Biden than on Donald Trump in battleground states. This is the reason why Biden’s team is making efforts to remove him from the ballot.
In a statement to POLITICO, Brian Hughes, a senior adviser for the Trump campaign, expressed confidence in their ability to secure voter support, regardless of the candidates on the ballot.
According to Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. possesses two advantages. Firstly, his well-known Democratic last name could attract Democratic voters who may want an alternative to Biden. Secondly, Kennedy Jr. has a plethora of intriguing, albeit controversial, ideas that range from vaccines and autism to various fringe concepts. These ideas appear to resonate more with right-leaning individuals rather than those on the left.
There is a clear overlap in the potential support for both Trump and Kennedy, which goes beyond just policy. A POLITICO analysis reveals that out of the $22.7 million raised by Kennedy’s campaign from donors contributing at least $200, a significant amount of nearly $1.6 million comes from over 1,700 donors who also contributed to Trump’s campaign during the 2020 cycle.
In contrast, Kennedy has garnered a modest sum of $850,000 from approximately 980 donors who have previously contributed to Biden’s 2020 campaign. Although these figures may only represent a small portion of Kennedy’s overall fundraising efforts, they do indicate that he may have a stronger appeal among individuals who were previously interested in Trump’s candidacy.
Angela Stanton King, who previously worked on Black voter outreach for Trump’s 2020 campaign, is now part of Kennedy’s team, focusing on Black voter outreach.
Del Bigtree, Kennedy’s communications director and the founder of an anti-vaccine nonprofit, took the opportunity to advocate for his cause on January 6th. He spoke at a rally near the Capitol on the same day as the riot.
Some recently departed staffers have been more open about their conservative bias, which has occasionally caused embarrassment for the campaign. A consultant, whose identity remains undisclosed, expressed in two fundraising emails that individuals charged with crimes connected to the January 6 Capitol riot were “activists sitting in a Washington DC jail cell stripped of their Constitutional liberties.” Kennedy later clarified that this viewpoint did not align with his own.
Kennedy has been critical of Trump’s failure to “drain the swamp” and has accused him of hiring individuals like John Bolton, who he refers to as “swamp creatures.” However, Kennedy has recently shifted his focus to his former primary rival, Biden, suggesting in a CNN interview that Biden poses a greater threat to democracy than Trump.
According to Bartlett, the right saw Kennedy as a potential threat to Biden in the primary, which is why they introduced, supported, and backed him.
Natalie Allison, Adam Wren, and Meridith McGraw made valuable contributions to this report.
