RFK Jr. begins 2024 presidential marketing campaign with 14% of Biden voters
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launches his unlikely bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Wednesday with the assist of 14% of voters who backed President Joe Biden in 2020, an unique USA TODAY/Suffolk College Ballot finds.
That’s shocking energy for a candidate who has a well-known political identify however is now recognized principally because the champion of a debunked conspiracy concept blaming childhood vaccines for autism.
Within the survey taken Saturday by means of Tuesday, solely 67% of Biden’s 2020 supporters mentioned they might assist him for the Democratic nomination over his present challengers. Kennedy stands at 14%, and self-help writer Marianne Williamson, a quixotic candidate for the nomination final time, is at 5%. One other 13% are undecided.
The ballot was taken by landline and cellphone of 600 Biden voters, recognized from nationwide and state polls from 2020 to 2022. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 share factors.
Earlier protection:Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to turn out to be newest Democrat difficult Biden in 2024 for White Home
How susceptible is Biden in 2024?
The findings underscore Biden’s potential vulnerability to a extra mainstream challenger for the Democratic nomination, though none has emerged to date, or to a third-party candidate within the common election.
“In 2020, Joe Biden acquired extra votes than every other president in U.S. historical past, but the ballot tells us that those self same voters are open to different Democrats to wage a spirited major,” mentioned David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk College Political Analysis Heart. “Kennedy, though a protracted shot at this level, begins in double digits and cannot be ignored.”
Is he working? On crime, the border and the price range, Biden indicators his reelection bid
Kennedy drew the assist of 33% of Biden voters who disapprove of the job he’s doing as president and 35% of those that say his insurance policies within the White Home have been “too liberal.” The challenger’s enchantment was strongest amongst self-identified conservatives, youthful voters and people who do not have a school diploma.
He’s the son of Robert F. Kennedy Sr., who was assassinated as he campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968, and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy. An environmental lawyer, he turned a outstanding promoter of a hyperlink between vaccines and autism, a concept that has been discredited in scientific research.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy, 69, constructed a following on social media as he opposed vaccine mandates as a violation of particular person liberty, at occasions invoking the Holocaust as compared, and unfold misinformation in regards to the security of the vaccine.
His views have generally aligned him with former President Donald Trump and his supporters. In 2017, Trump requested Kennedy to chair a presidential fee on vaccine security.
The 2024 marketing campaign:Sen. Tim Scott will get nearer to a White Home bid: Who’s working for president in 2024? Who may?
Share this content:
