Headline Roundup • October 9th, 2023
How Will RFK Jr.'s Third-Party Bid Impact the 2024 Election?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
On Monday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that he is leaving the Democratic Party and shifting his 2024 presidential campaign to an independent bid. How will his third-party candidacy impact the 2024 presidential election?
Kennedy’s Words: In an op-ed published in Fox News Opinion (Right bias), Kennedy “declared independence” from “the corporations that have hijacked our government to milk us for profit,” from “Wall Street, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Ag, the military contractors, and their lobbyists,” from “the mercenary media that forever urges us to hate our neighbors and fear our friends,” from “cynical elites who betray our hope and amplify our divisions,” and from “the two political parties and the corrupt interests that dominate them.”
Spoiler Candidate? Will Kennedy’s third-party campaign pull more votes from President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump, the expected GOP candidate? The New York Post (Lean Right bias) quoted a number of political analysts offering their takes, determining that Kennedy’s name recognition among Democrats could pull supporters from Biden while his vaccine skepticism could pull supporters from Trump. Reuters (Center bias) noted a September Reuters/Ipsos concluding that Kennedy has a higher favorability rating than both Biden and Trump. An opinion piece in MSNBC (Left bias) determined Kennedy’s views align more with the political right, but that a segment of Democrats who are “skeptical of vaccines and the medical establishment, and who share his skepticism of supporting Ukraine” could be swayed away from supporting Biden.
Featured Coverage of this Story
According to a campaign fundraising appeal sent out Friday, Robert Kennedy Jr. is expected to announce at a rally Monday in Philadelphia that he will drop out of the Democratic presidential primary contest and make an independent bid for the White House instead. If anybody tells you they know exactly how this will shake up the race, they’re lying.
When Kennedy announced that he was running for the Democratic nomination in April, he immediately put up surprisingly strong polling numbers. In early summer some surveys showed that he had the...
REUTERS/Amr Alfiky
Long-shot U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s likely independent bid for the White House may complicate the 2024 race by taking votes away from Democrat Joe Biden or Republican Donald Trump in critical states, political analysts said.
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist, scion of the powerful political family and son of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, is expected to announce in Philadelphia on Oct. 9 that he will drop his challenge to President Biden for the Democratic Party's nomination, and run as an independent candidate instead.
The two-party system...
REUTERS
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. running as an independent would throw a wrench into the 2024 race, strategists tell The Post, predicting the descendant of one of America’s most famous families will take votes away from both major party nominees.
RFK Jr., 69, is expected to confirm his third-party bid on Monday, ditching his previous affiliation with the Democratic Party, where some polls put him as high as 20% in a national primary against President Biden.
Although an independent run would raise some complications for Kennedy — including...
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