RFK Jr. Withdraws from Swing State Ballots to Maximize Impact Against Kamala
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Fox News that he is removing his name from ballots in critical swing states, a move aimed at weakening Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming November election.
Kennedy officially ended his independent presidential bid on Friday, throwing his support behind former President Donald Trump. He claimed that the Democratic Party had rigged the primary process against him and the voters, leading to his decision to withdraw from the Pennsylvania ballots.
During an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” host Shannon Bream questioned Kennedy about his endorsement of Trump. Kennedy responded by explaining his plan to withdraw from the ballots in states crucial for Harris to reach 270 electoral votes in November.
Below is a transcript of the exchange, courtesy of Grabien:
BREAM: Have you all negotiated over or talked about a cabinet position, another position within a Trump government in exchange for your endorsement?
KENNEDY: No. There there’s been no commitments. But you know, I met with President Trump, with his family, with his close advisors, and we just made a general commitment that we were going to work together.
BREAM: What about the states where you’re trying to get off of a number of swing state ballots to say, I’m going to stay on a number of state ballots, but in these swing states, I’m going to try to withdraw myself and ask my supporters, or at least you’re telling them, think about supporting President Trump. Did you negotiate over which states you would try to withdraw from?
KENNEDY: Yeah, I mean, we all know which states they were. They’re basically 10 swing states where my presence in the race would have helped Vice President Harris and would have harmed President Trump. So I’m going to get off the ballot in other states, and then we’re going to stay on the ballot in 30 states. And, you know, I’m encouraging people to vote for me in those states, those are states –they’re all red or all blue states where their votes are not going to change the outcome of the race. And, and in the in the states where I would have been a spoiler, I’m going to get out. It was about 10 states.
A prominent pollster has indicated that RFK Jr.'s decision to suspend his campaign and endorse Trump could be disastrous for Harris.
Though Kennedy was only polling around 5 percent nationwide, in a closely contested race between the two main candidates, that small percentage could be the deciding factor in the presidential election, according to the New York Post.
“Most of Kennedy’s left-leaning support had already dispersed to Harris,” noted Dave Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst at Cook Political Report, speaking to The Post. “So this could represent a meaningful benefit for Trump.”
“We’re talking probably a fraction of a point in our survey from August in battleground states,” Wasserman added. “Forty-six percent of RFK supporters went with Trump in a two-way race, 26% went with Harris and Kennedy’s support had collapsed from 8% to 5% nationally.”
“Campaigns would spend hundreds of millions of dollars for a fraction of a point given how tight the margins are in these battleground states,” he said, referencing the narrow margins seen in 2020, especially in Arizona and Georgia.
“RFKs endorsement won’t move all his supporters to Trump,” he said. “We’re in a very volatile environment right now and it could remain that way through the election.”
Chris Lane, a pollster with Cygnal, commented that “among swing voters who will ultimately decide this election, 16% indicated they were going to vote for RFK.”
“With margins in battleground states being razor-thin, that 16% could represent the difference between winning and losing a state,” Lane explained. “If RFK encourages his supporters to vote for Trump, it could have a massive impact and change the calculus for both Trump and Harris, especially in battleground states.”
“Add in the fact that those 16% are more center-right than anything, and will ultimately add to Trump’s ballot share,” Lane said. “Our data shows 4:1, these swing voters were more likely to call themselves conservatives than liberals.”
Even anti-Trump pollster Frank Luntz acknowledged that the RFK endorsement could be pivotal in the election.
“It’s probably worth about 1% for Trump and that 1% could be everything if it’s in the swing states. In the end, the reason why Kennedy was drawing 10, 12, even as high as 14% is because he was taking votes away from Joe Biden. Joe Biden’s gone. Kamala Harris has replaced him, and [RFK’s] vote collapsed down to about 4 or 5% and what’s left is a Trump vote,” Luntz said during an appearance on NewsNation, speaking with host Leland Vittert.
“Some of them are simply not going to participate in November. Roughly two to one, the ones who are remaining will vote for Trump over Harris and that’s worth a single percent and that single percent can make the difference in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin,” added Luntz.