RFK Jr. suspends campaign, throws support behind Trump

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Friday that he was suspending his campaign for the White House and backing former President Donald Trump.

Mr. Kennedy said he would not terminate his presidential campaign altogether but would remove his name from the ballot in battleground states. He said he dropped out of battleground states out of fear that his candidacy could have handed the election to Vice President Kamala Harris.

Mr. Kennedy joined Mr. Trump onstage later at an Arizona rally, where the crowd burst into “Bobby!” cheers.

Mr. Kennedy said he was making the “agonizing decision” to drop out of the race and back Mr. Trump to work with him to combat chronic disease and end the Ukraine war, two key reasons why he launched his bid for the White House.

“We are aligned with each other on other key issues,” he said. “Like ending the forever wars, ending the childhood disease epidemics, securing the border, protecting freedom of speech, unraveling the corporate capture of our regulatory agencies, getting the U.S. intelligence agencies out of the business of propagandizing and censoring and surveilling Americans, and interfering with our elections.”

He encouraged voters in non-battleground states to still vote for him, believing that there was a chance he could still siphon enough votes from Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris to prevent either from earning enough electoral college votes to win the White House.

Still, Mr. Kennedy on Friday withdrew from the Pennsylvania ballot, where he was locked in a court battle to gain access, and withdrew from the Arizona ballot on Thursday.

Mr. Kennedy was on the ballot in 23 states, including the crucial swing states of Michigan and North Carolina, and awaiting confirmation to be on the ballot in 22 other states. In many battleground states, Ms. Harris and former President Donald Trump are either statistically tied thanks to polls’ margin of error, or neck and neck.

The son of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, Mr. Kennedy is known for his decades of championing progressive causes related to the environment and corporate abuses. He also crusaded against vaccines, a stance that gained popularity on the right amid resistance to COVID-era mandates.

He originally launched his campaign as a Democratic challenger to President Biden but switched late last year to run as an independent. He has since been hit with numerous lawsuits by the Democratic National Committee to keep him off the ballots.

During his announcement, Mr. Kennedy said that he departed the Democratic party because it had changed dramatically from the values of his father and uncle, and accused Democrats of turning the notion of democracy into nothing more than a slogan for candidates.

He said Democrats acted “profoundly undemocratic” by choosing to ignore voters and install Ms. Harris as the nominee, and criticized her for not doing interviews since ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket.

“How did the Democratic Party choose a candidate that has never done an interview or debate during the entire election cycle? We know the answers,” Mr. Kennedy said. “They did it by weaponizing the government agencies. They did it by abandoning democracy. They did it by suing the opposition and by disenfranchising American voters.”

The Harris campaign on Thursday celebrated the anticipated suspension of Mr. Kennedy’s campaign, boasting that the Democratic Party helped push him onto the sidelines and predicting that his endorsement of Mr. Trump would have zero impact on the race.

In a memo, Democratic National Committee senior advisor Ramsey Reid said any threat Mr. Kennedy may have posed to Ms. Harris was “neutralized” thanks to an aggressive campaign to “define” him.

Mr. Reid noted that Mr. Kennedy averaged about 5% in polls, a steep decline from the double digits he received in some polls after jumping ship from the Democratic Party.

However, 5% of the vote in battleground states could be enough to swing the election.

A memo from Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio on Friday argued that the majority of RFK supporters in swing states broke for Mr. Trump over Ms. Harris.

“This is good news for President Trump and his campaign – plain and simple,” Mr. Fabrizio said.

The race between Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris is a toss-up and it remains to be seen how Mr. Kennedy’s move will shake out in the electorate.

In North Carolina, for example, Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump are statistically tied while Mr. Kennedy carried about 2% of voter support, according to estimates from CBS News.

Barret Mason, an Arizona-based GOP strategist, said Mr. Kennedy had been home for many of the “double-haters” this election cycle who were not thrilled with voting for Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump.

The dynamic, though, changed after Mr. Biden dropped out of the race, and Ms. Harris ushered in a burst of enthusiasm among Democrats.

“But I also think some of the RFK voters were to the right,” he said. “They liked the anti-vaccine stuff. I don’t think it will have a big impact generally speaking, but in a state [like Arizona] that was only decided by 10,500 votes, a 1-point swing makes a difference.”

“I don’t think it is going to have a big impact, but a small impact could mean something here in Arizona,” he said.

Earlier this year, a team-up between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kennedy seemed highly unlikely. In April, Mr. Trump accused Mr. Kennedy of being a spoiler candidate and a “Democrat plant.” He said Mr. Kennedy was a “radical left liberal” who was put in place to, at the time, bolster Mr. Biden’s odds of winning.

The former president appeared to warm to the idea of Mr. Kennedy becoming a part of his campaign as of late.

In July, after the assassination attempt on Mr. Trump, the former president called Mr. Kennedy, praising him and alluded to possibly teaming up.

A recording of the call was posted on X.

At an event in Nevada on Friday, Mr. Trump thanked Mr. Kennedy for his “very nice” endorsement.

“I want to thank Bobby, that was very nice. … That’s big, he’s a great guy respected by everybody,” Mr. Trump said.