PHOENIX — Some voted for Donald Trump, others for Joe Biden. A few had never wanted anything to do with politics before they heard Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on a podcast or YouTube video.
Lined up outside a Phoenix wedding hall tucked between a freeway, a railroad track and a U-Haul rental center, the hundreds of people who turned out Wednesday to hear Mr. Kennedy speak shared little in common ideologically. What united them was a deep-seated distrust — of the media, of corporations and especially of the government — and a belief that Mr. Kennedy is the only person in politics willing to tell them the truth.
“I like that he talks to us like adults,” said Gilbert Limon, a 48-year-old pharmacist from Phoenix. “He tells you the majority of what you need to know. Whereas I feel like (other politicians) just give you bits and pieces to try to fit their agenda. I’ve had enough of that.”
Voters are not enthusiastic about a Biden-Trump rematch, and alternatives like Mr. Kennedy or the No Labels third-party movement, which would typically be longshots, see an opening. Mr. Kennedy’s appearance in a 2024 battleground state highlights how he could influence the election in ways that are tough to predict. Allies of both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden have expressed concerns that Mr. Kennedy’s independent bid could pull votes from their candidate in next year’s expected general election rematch.
Candidates from outside the Republican and Democratic parties rarely make a splash, if they can make the ballot to begin with. But third-party candidates don’t usually carry a famous last name like Mr. Kennedy’s, or his existing network of supporters.
Mr. Kennedy made the stop in Phoenix as part of his laborious push to get access to the 2024 presidential ballot as an independent candidate, which he figures will require him to collect at least a million signatures across the country. Aides mingled in the crowd, filling up his petitions to qualify in Arizona.
Ballot access for independent and minor-party candidates is an expensive and complicated process, with each state setting its own rules. Campaigns usually hire people to collect signatures and enlist an army of lawyers to fight for ballot access.
American Values 2024, a super PAC supporting Mr. Kennedy, has pledged to spend $15 million to help him get on the ballot in 10 states. Mr. Kennedy secured a victory in Utah, where the lieutenant governor pushed back the deadline to qualify from January to March after Mr. Kennedy filed suit.
Mr. Kennedy is a member of one of the Democratic Party’s most famous families — his father was the attorney general for his uncle, President John F. Kennedy. But he’s more recently built closer ties to the far right, where his conspiratorial and isolationist views are at home.
Enriqueta Porras, a 52-year-old physician from Phoenix, voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Mr. Trump in 2020. She said she’s torn about the third-party conundrum. She’d like to vote for someone she believes in, like Mr. Kennedy, but also wants to make sure Mr. Biden loses and may vote strategically.
“I don’t want to be that person,” Ms. Porras said, “but I feel like there’s a lot at stake and that may just have to happen.”
One of the nation’s most prominent anti-vaccine activists, Mr. Kennedy has long had a loyal following of people who reject the scientific consensus that vaccines are safe and effective, and they form the backbone of his presidential campaign.
Among the dozen Kennedy supporters who spoke to the AP in Phoenix, many share his view that corporations, especially drug companies, wield too much power.
Curt Eastin, a 65-year-old professional coach from Chandler, a Phoenix suburb, voted for Mr. Biden in 2020 but won’t again. If Mr. Kennedy weren’t running, he’d vote for Mr. Trump next year, he said.
“I like that I can trust him. I think he’s honest,” he said. “And even if I don’t agree with him, I know that he came to his conclusions honestly. I can’t trust any of the other people.”
Mr. Kennedy is keenly aware that his fans avoid the mainstream media. He said he’s drawing support from young people but struggling with people in his generation.
“The problem with the baby boomers, I think, is they get their news from MSNBC, Fox and CNN,” he told the crowd in Phoenix, which responded with boos. “Whereas young people are getting their news from podcasts and other alternative sources.”
Third party or independent candidates rarely do well in presidential contests. Even the most successful recent example, Ross Perot in 1992, didn’t win a single electoral vote despite winning 19% of the popular vote.
Sometimes, minor-party candidates will get enough votes that partisans will blame them for tipping the scales to elect the popular vote loser, like Ralph Nader in 2000 or Jill Stein in 2016, both Green Party candidates.
“One of the biggest reasons I like him is because of his stance on partisanship in our House and our Senate, and I like how he wants to try and reunite both of them,” said Michael Chacon, a 23-year-old student in Tempe who has never voted and still wasn’t sure whether he will in 2024. “I think that’s a really good idea. I think cooperation would go a long way.”
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