Scion of US political dynasty, who had been challenging Joe Biden for Democratic nomination, expected to announce on Sunday

Robert F Kennedy Jr is reported to be ending his challenge to Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination and run instead as an independent candidate, in a move that could upset the 2024 race for the White House.

Kennedy, 69 and a scion of a famous political dynasty – a son of the former US attorney general and New York senator Robert F Kennedy, and a nephew of the former president John F Kennedy – will announce his run in Pennsylvania on 9 October, according to Mediaite.

“Bobby feels that the Democratic National Committee is changing the rules to exclude his candidacy so an independent run is the only way to go,” the website quoted a “Kennedy campaign insider” as saying.

  • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
    36·
    1 year ago

    He’s a spoiler candidate, working for the Republicans.

    Even Bernie Sanders, the longest serving and most popular third-party politician in modern history, maybe ever, has said that the only path to the presidency is through the Democratic party’s nominating convention.

    Voting for an independent in 2024, as usual, will be indistinguishable from just voting for the Republican candidate.

      • Spellinbee@lemmy.world
        4·
        1 year ago

        From my anecdotal experience, I would agree. The only person I’ve heard say they like him said immediately after that, I’m not a fan of Trump but he’s better than Biden.

          • TechyDad@lemmy.world
            10·
            1 year ago

            The right is hoping that people see the “Kennedy” name and his claims of being “a liberal” and vote for him. Obviously, the smallest research into Kennedy would show that he’s nothing like his more famous family members, but the right is targeting low information voters.

            That said, there is the possibility of some Republicans voting for Kennedy. My parents are staunch Republicans. They voted for Trump twice, only watch FOX News, and my father was convinced that Republicans would impact and remove Biden and install Trump with the help of the Democrats. (He didn’t explain just why the Democrats would do this. I can only suppose that they were hoping for every Democrat to lose any shred of sanity all at once.)

            My father twice told me about how he thinks Kennedy is a great candidate. Would he vote for Kennedy instead of Trump? Maybe. He’s been backing off the Trump love recently - backing fist DeSantis and now Scott. Then again, he ALWAYS votes Republican so my bet would be his Kennedy support would disappear when he reached the voting booth.

    • capital@lemmy.world
      5·
      1 year ago

      As I have said every election year, I’ll bet anyone any amount of money that either a Democrat or Republican will win the election. 3rd party will never win.

      Don’t waste your vote.