​Kennedy for President! (Again?)

By Chip Genung ’25

Third-party presidential bids are common but never successful. Some of the closest attempts at winning the White House include former President Theodore Roosevelt with his Bull Moose Party run in 1912, with 27 percent of the popular vote, and Ross Perot, who won 19 percent of the vote in 1992. But no third-party candidate has reached nearly those numbers in the 21st century, even with the Libertarian and Green parties always running candidates, who, combined, often won less than 5 percent of the vote. Still, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. thinks he has a chance at it.
 
Kennedy is the nephew of the 35th President, John F. Kennedy, and son of former attorney general and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. Surrounded by politics virtually his entire life, he decided to continue the family trend of public service by working as an environmental and children’s rights lawyer. Through his work, he has taken up environmental cases against major companies and organizations, and he managed to win many. Initially, he ran for the 2024 Democratic bid for president, but, after seeing no path to victory against President Biden for the nomination, he launched an independent bid for the White House.
 
Though polls vary, RFK is currently polling somewhere around 13 percent, which is impressive given the current political climate. This is, in part, thanks to his name Kennedy, which he has utilized greatly and is his best hope of making real progress. Given the domination the Kennedys had over the Democratic Party and American politics at large in the late 20th century, it is no surprise that RFK is utilizing the name and finding success with it. While Kennedy likely has no path to victory, he still is a player in this election.
 
This is because he raises the question of whether he will take more votes from Trump or Biden? Biden might be the obvious answer, given Kennedy’s only recent departure from the Democratic Party, and the fact that the name Kennedy holds weight to far more Democrats than Republicans. However, this is not necessarily the case once one looks at his policies. His beliefs on health care, specifically vaccines and the federal reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, are very attractive to conservatives. He has also taken a stand for securing the southern border more to lower illegal immigration, while supporting the expansion of systems to increase legal immigration.
 
These policies, coupled with his environmental stance and his family's prominence in the DNC, make him a viable contender to attract both Republicans and Democrats, and he will continue for the foreseeable future to take voters from both sides, considering his ample funding. This is, in part, thanks to his new vice president pick, philanthropist and lawyer Nicole Shanahan, who is also the ex-wife of a Google co-founder. This has not only given Kennedy enough capital to continue his campaign but has made the ticket appealing to more demographics since Shanahan is 38 (young for politics) and is the daughter of a single immigrant parent. Ultimately, we probably won’t see another Kennedy in the White House anytime soon, but a candidate as versatile and interesting as RFK Jr. has the power to affect who will end up on Pennsylvania Avenue.