7 months ago
44
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with his famous Democratic name, was supposed to be a Republican weapon against President Joe Biden. Polls immediately after Kennedy said he was challenging Biden gave him some gaudy numbers. No amount of pointing out that was the result of Democrats yearning for a pie-in-the-sky alternate nominee and responding positively to a familiar name would keep the media from reporting it as a serious thing. Well, go figure: Once Democratic voters became more familiar with who Kennedy really is, they turned against him. Now, The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake suggests, Republicans may have reason to regret their Kennedy boosterism.
As he teases a third-party run, Kennedy’s favorability is much higher with Republicans than it is with Democrats: 48% of Republicans have a favorable view of him, with just 18% having an unfavorable view. By contrast, Kennedy is viewed favorably by just 14% of Democrats, and unfavorably by 57%. Republicans like Kennedy, Blake points out, “better than entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former vice president Mike Pence and about as much as former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.). (Only Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are clearly more popular.)”
Just as a Kennedy third-party run could siphon the votes of some Democrats discontented with Biden, it could do the same to the Republican nominee.
