Almost immediately after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary race to launch an independent White House bid, Democratic operatives began speculating about what the candidate’s run could mean for President Joe Biden’s re-election chances.
For months, there was widespread uncertainty regarding whether Kennedy would pull more votes from Biden or presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, but his announcement this week introducing Nicole Shanahan as his running mate shifted expectations significantly.
Choosing the far-left big-money Democratic Party donor to fill out his ticket sent a clear signal to pundits and politicians on both sides of the aisle that Biden now stands to lose far more votes to the independent candidate than Trump does.
Democratic hand-wringing was evident in a subsequent call hosted by the Democratic National Committee that included a number of elected officials.
U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) declared that he was “personally offended and just disgusted” by Kennedy’s campaign, adding: “He should be ashamed of himself. He should stop running for president.”
Although Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis insisted that Kennedy “has no realistic path to victory” in his state, he nevertheless described the candidate as “a spoiler” whom he claimed had been “drafted into this race by Donald Trump’s top supporters.”
Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow recalled the 2016 election results in her assessment of Kennedy’s potential to upend Biden’s re-election later this year.
“You don’t need significant support to throw an election to Donald Trump,” she claimed. “We saw this play out in 2016 where [Green Party candidate] Jill Stein got 50,000 votes and Hillary Clinton lost by 10,000 votes in Michigan. So it is this type of campaign — and Kennedy should be smart enough to know better. But I don’t think he does. I think his ego is in the way.”
Democratic strategist @Lis_Smith on RFK Jr. choosing Nicole Shanahan for vice president: “This might be the first case in history where someone was able to buy themselves a VP slot.”
New pod out tomorrow wherever you get your podcasts. pic.twitter.com/oWVgqvzzOE
— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) March 26, 2024
Tony Lyons, who co-founded a super PAC in support of Kennedy’s bid, denounced the DNC’s efforts to stifle the candidate’s ability to reach voters with his message.
He said party leaders are engaging in an “incredible assault on democracy” and “are not letting the American people know who these candidates are.”
Lyons went on to echo Kennedy’s claim that he “is a very serious candidate with a clear path to the presidency,” which involves a scenario in which neither of the major-party candidates receive 270 electoral votes and the final decision is left up to the U.S. House of Representatives.
