The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has ramped up efforts against independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as voting approaches in Michigan, a key swing state.
The son of former senator and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, Kennedy Jr. is an attorney who has risen to prominence in recent years as a vocal critic of vaccines, frequently promoting the debunked claims that they can cause autism in young children. Currently, he is engaged in a 2024 presidential bid as an independent candidate. He previously attempted to run as a Democrat but switched to independent in October.
Incumbent presidents like Joe Biden have historically always secured their party's nomination when seeking reelection, often winning primaries by considerable margins, but major primary challenges or independent campaigns have in some cases damaged the overall popularity of certain presidents. Due to his consistently struggling poll numbers and perceived unpopularity, conversations about potential challengers have been prevalent throughout Biden's presidency, though worries about his acceptance by Democratic voters have, by and large, not been borne out in state primaries. Biden has, so far, won all three Democratic primaries and garnered roughly 83 percent of the popular vote overall, with predictions about his possible rejection by key parts of the electorate not yet coming to pass.
The Democratic primary in Michigan is set to take place on February 27. Despite his success to this point, the state is considered by many to still be a major test for Biden's popularity, given the state's notable Muslim population and the evident discontent among Muslim voters over the president's support of Israel amid its ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.
On Saturday, The Hill reported that the DNC had ramped up efforts against Kennedy in Michigan, launching a slate of billboards on Friday highlighting his fundraising sources as he begins a tour of the state for his campaign. The four billboards have gone up in Grand Rapids and feature images of Kennedy alongside former President Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election, with text noting that they have both received major donations from Timothy Mellon. A Kennedy-affiliated political action committee, American Values 2024, received $15 million in donations from Mellon last year.
"RFK Jr. powered by MAGA Trump. Same biggest donor Timothy Mellon," the billboards read.
Newsweek reached out to the DNC via email for comment.
"RFK Jr. isn't fooling anyone," DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd told The Hill in a statement. "He's powered and bankrolled by the same extreme MAGA donor as Donald Trump, and Trump's allies have already called him a useful chaos agent in this election. Michiganders deserve better than a stalking horse for extreme MAGA Republicans."
The DNC has also recently filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), accusing Kennedy Jr.'s campaign of colluding with American Values 2024 in order to secure ballot access in certain states. In a statement about the matter, the campaign dismissed the committee's allegations as "a nonissue."
"Donors from across the political spectrum are supporting the Kennedy campaign as they are tired of the corruption in the two-party system," a spokesperson for Kennedy Jr.'s campaign told Newsweek in statement via email. "Instead, donors want an independent candidate who will heal the divide, restore the middle class, end the forever wars, unravel corporate capture, and the end chronic disease epidemic."
Meanwhile, given the prevalence of vaccine skepticism and conspiracies among right-wing voters, there has been some concern that Kennedy Jr.'s bid would pull more voters from Trump than it would from Biden. Trump's team has previously dismissed the independent campaign as "nothing more than a vanity project for a liberal Kennedy looking to cash in on his family's name."
Update 2/11/24, 3:54 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Kennedy Jr.'s campaign.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
fairness meter
To Rate This Article
About the writer
Thomas Kika is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in upstate New York. His focus is reporting on crime and national ... Read more
