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- Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is suspending his long-shot presidential bid.
- Kennedy first entered the race as a Democratic primary challenger to President Joe Biden.
- He said on Friday he was supporting former President Donald Trump.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his long-shot presidential campaign on Friday, throwing his support behind former President Donald Trump in a bid to shake up an already chaotic 2024 race.
Kennedy took a unique approach in ending his campaign, stressing that he was only removing his name from the ballot in 10 swing states. Otherwise, he encouraged his supporters to still vote for him in states that are overwhelmingly blue or red.
"Our polling consistently showed that by staying on the ballot in the battleground states, I would likely hand the election over to the Democrats, with whom I disagree on the most existential issues," Kennedy said at a news conference in Arizona announcing his decision.
Kennedy said that in a series of meetings with Trump and his team, he realized he shared more in common with the former president than he thought. He compared their potential partnership to President Abraham Lincoln's famous "team of rivals," in which he stocked his Cabinet with former foes.
"I was surprised to discover that we are aligned on many key issues," Kennedy said. "In those meetings, he suggested that we join forces as a unity party."
Kennedy said their understanding "allows us to disagree publicly and privately and fiercely."
In recent days, Kennedy's campaign has shown signs of strain. His most recent financial report showed he was burning through cash without raising enough money to keep pace. His running mate, the attorney Nicole Shanahan, recently suggested she did not want to continue to fund the bulk of his third-party run only to end up as a spoiler.
Kennedy — a scion of the Democratic Party's most famous family — had been critical of Trump in the past but has since adopted policy positions that mirror the GOP nominee, most notably by pushing vaccine skepticism.
The Democratic National Committee appeared unfazed by his decision, arguing it would hurt Trump.
"The more voters learned about RFK Jr. the less they liked him. Donald Trump isn't earning an endorsement that's going to help build support, he's inheriting the baggage of a failed fringe candidate," Mary Beth Cahill, a DNC senior advisor, said in a statement. "Good riddance."
Some of Kennedy's own siblings greeted the news with somber resignation.
"Our brother Bobby's decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear," Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, one of Kennedy's sisters and the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, said in a statement along with four other members of the family. "It is a sad ending to a sad story."
Trump has also been far more receptive to Kennedy's overtures than Vice President Kamala Harris, who, according to The Washington Post, did not respond through her advisors to Kennedy's request for a meeting. Meanwhile, the outlet reported that Trump and Kennedy had met in person.
Kennedy seemed primed to be a factor in the 2024 election when it appeared that President Joe Biden and Trump were destined for a rematch. Early polls showed that Kennedy was nearing double-digit support when faced with a likely Trump-Biden rematch that Americans didn't want.
But, like Trump, Kennedy has faltered over the summer. It hasn't helped matters that his campaign has been dogged by bizarre stories, including his belated confirmation that he dumped a bear carcass in Central Park years ago.
Kennedy, who was a highly regarded environmental lawyer, has become best known for his anti-vaccine advocacy. In April 2023, he announced that he would challenge Biden in the Democratic primary.
But Kennedy struggled to gain ground against a sitting president who was then widely assumed to be cruising to a rematch with Trump. By October, Kennedy announced he would run as an independent candidate instead.
Without a major party's organization, Kennedy needed to raise massive sums to grow his campaign and qualify for each state's ballot. He selected Shanahan, a philanthropist and Silicon Valley lawyer, as his running mate. She would later joke that her main qualification was her massive fortune.
The banking heir Timothy Mellon, a major Trump supporter, financed a pro-Kennedy super PAC, raising concerns that Kennedy would spoil Biden's chances. But polling also showed that Kennedy could cut into Trump's base, leading the former president to step up his criticism of him.
Kennedy cloaked his candidacy in images of his famous family, which led many of his relatives to criticize him publicly. Some Kennedys also made a show of endorsing Biden before the president dropped out of the 2024 race.
Throughout his campaign, Kennedy has been mired in myriad controversies, from airing a baseless COVID-related theory about the virus being "ethnically targeted" to his vow not to "take sides" regarding conspiracies surrounding the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.