Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign is mulling whether to stay in the race or join forces with former President Donald Trump, running mate Nicole Shanahan said Tuesday.
Ms. Shanahan said the campaign is considering maintaining its third party status to capture at least 5% of the vote and return for another shot in 2028, but fears doing so will hand the Harris-Walz team the victory.
“There’s two options that we’re looking at, and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and [Minnesota Gov. Tim] Walz presidency, because we draw votes from Trump, or we draw somehow more votes from Trump,” Ms. Shanahan told Tom Bilyeu on the “Impact Theory” podcast.
“Or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump,” she continued. “And you know, we walk away from that and we explain to our base why we’re making this decision. … It’s not an easy decision.”
Mr. Kennedy’s campaign didn’t confirm to The Washington Times whether he’s considering dropping out to team up with Mr. Trump, but pointed to a post on X he made shortly after his running mate’s interview.
“As always, I am willing to talk with leaders of any political party to further the goals I have served for 40 years in my career and in this campaign,” he said. “These are: reversing the chronic disease epidemic, ending the war machine, cleaning corporate influence out of government and toxic pollution out of the environment, protecting freedom of speech, and ending politicization of enforcement agencies.”
Ms. Shanahan said she didn’t dump “tens of millions of dollars” into the campaign “to be a spoiler candidate,” a tag she blames on the Democratic National Convention.
She also accused Democrats of shadow-banning her and RFK, manipulating polls, suing them in “every possible state” and planting insiders in their campaign to disrupt it.
Recent polls show that when Mr. Kennedy appears on the ballot with Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris, the Democratic candidate tends to edge out the former president.
“From the beginning of this race, we’ve said that RFK Jr. is nothing more than a spoiler for Donald Trump,” Democratic strategist Lis Smith said in a statement. “And we’re glad that his running mate is finally admitting it.”
Mr. Kennedy has been battling to appear on the ballot across the country but has run into roadblocks. Indeed, a judge last week in New York ruled that he couldn’t appear on the ballot in the Empire State. The independent candidate is appealing that ruling while trying to stay on the ballot in the swing states of Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Earlier this month, Mr. Kennedy met with Mr. Trump at the Republican National Convention after speaking with the former president following the July 13 assassination attempt.
During that conversation, which was leaked by Mr. Kennedy’s son online, Mr. Trump alluded to possibly teaming up and echoed RFK’s conspiracy theories that vaccination leads to autism.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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