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With election day looming, and just weeks after he made an appearance at Inman Connect Las Vegas, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is suspending his long-shot bid for the presidency and will support Donald Trump.
Kennedy announced the suspension during a press conference Friday, saying that he could not “in good conscience ask my staff and volunteers” to continue when there is no longer a realistic path to the White House. However, in a twist, Kennedy also said “I am not terminating my campaign, I am simply suspending it, not ending it.” He went on to say that he is in the process of removing his name from ballots in swing states, but that his name will remain on ballots in solidly blue and red states.
“I encourage you to vote for me,” Kennedy said to voters in non-swing states.
Kennedy also said that he will “throw my support behind Donald Trump.”
Kennedy recalled meeting with Trump after the assassination attempt against the former president. Following “intense discussions,” Kennedy was “surprised to discover we are aligned on many key issues.” Kennedy said he and Trump discussed Abraham Lincoln’s “team of rivals,” which “would allow us to disagree publicly and privately” while still working together on “existential issues.”
How that arrangement might work out in practice remains to be seen; the former president notoriously values absolute loyalty among his aides, and Kennedy’s endorsement was far from absolute. At one point he recalled being a “ferocious critic” of the president during Trump’s time in the White House, and later said that “my joining the Trump campaign will be a difficult sacrifice for my wife and children.”
Kennedy later said that suspending his campaign is “the best hope for ending the Ukraine war,” as well as stopping the “chronic disease epidemic,” a topic on which he spoke at length during the latter part of his press conference. He also spent significant time criticizing the media for its treatment of his campaign, and slamming Democrats for, among other things, what he described as the “profoundly undemocratic” process through which Vice President Kamala Harris became the party’s nominee.
“In an honest system, I believe I would’ve won the election,” Kennedy argued.
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Kennedy hails from a family that is famously aligned with the Democrats, but he left the party last fall. He spent the ensuing months positioning himself as an alternative to both Trump and Biden. However, Harris moving to the top of the Democratic ticket changed the dynamic of the competition and sapped significant attention from Kennedy’s efforts.
In the days leading up to his announcement, rumors ran wild that Kennedy was planning on exiting — and that he had reached out to both the Trump and Harris campaigns about exchanging an endorsement for a future job in their administrations. Trump reportedly indicated an interest in appointing Kennedy to a position. During his press conference, Kennedy said Harris did not respond to his outreach efforts.
Kennedy, the son of late U.S. senator and presidential hopeful Bobby Kennedy, spent his career working as a lawyer. He rose to national prominence in recent years after questioning the efficacy of vaccines, among other things.
But Kennedy may be most familiar to Inman readers for appearing earlier this month at Inman Connect Las Vegas. Kennedy took the stage for an interview with Brad Inman, then later met with Inman editorial staffers for a question and answer session.
During his discussion with Brad Inman, Kennedy responded to a question about his comments on vaccines by saying “if you want to get a vaccine you ought to be able to get a vaccine, but you ought to know the safety profile and the risk profile and the efficacy of that vaccine.”
Brad Inman also asked Kennedy about his housing platform, to which Kennedy argued that homeownership is the foundation of the American middle class. Later, while speaking to Inman journalists, Kennedy said he wanted to limit the ability of major corporations to buy large numbers of homes. That, he said, would free up more supply. Meanwhile, he also discussed creating incentives that would push local governments to loosen their zoning and planning laws.
Asked why he agreed to appear at Connect, Kennedy said “I wanted to talk to Realtors.”
Inman also asked Kennedy if the federal government is more corrupt under one party or the other.
“I don’t think anymore it matters,” he responded. “It used to. I don’t think it matters anymore. It’s overt with both of them. They don’t even try to hide it.”
Inman extended Connect invitations to both the Trump and Harris campaigns and has sent interview requests, but the campaigns have not responded to those inquiries.
Polling suggested Kennedy’s bid for the presidency was always a long shot. According to the Pew Research Center, Kennedy’s polling numbers peaked at 15 percent last month, but have since fallen to just 7 percent.
“Most of Harris’ gains have come at the expense of Kennedy,” Pew reported last week.
More recently, the Associated Press reported Thursday that Republicans are more likely to have a positive view of Kennedy than Democrats and that Trump’s allies have pushed for exactly the kind of dropout-plus-endorsement that finally came Friday.
Update: This story was updated after publication with additional commentary from Kennedy’s press conference, and with additional background.
Email Jim Dalrymple II
