Conservatives Embrace Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Democratic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign may be struggling to gain his party's support, but Republicans seem to love him.

Languishing in the polls, the prominent anti-vaxxer and latest presidential candidate in the Kennedy political dynasty is considered by few Democrats as a serious challenger to President Joe Biden in 2024, commanding less than 14 percent of the vote in most major polls roughly two months into his campaign.

Kennedy could potentially win a handful of delegates after the Biden campaign signaled it will not participate in early primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire. However, Kennedy still faces headwinds in liberal strongholds down the road in his attempt to unseating Biden in a primary—something that has never happened to a sitting U.S. president.

That hasn't stopped Republicans from singing his praises.

Conservative activist group Moms For Liberty on Wednesday announced that Kennedy, 69, would be a featured speaker at its 2023 Joyful Warriors National Summit this month, the lone Democrat appearing along with conservative leaders including Dennis Prager, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and Republican presidential candidates Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Donald Trump.

Kennedy—son of assassinated U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of assassinated President John F. Kennedy—has also courted voices in conservative media. On Tuesday night, Fox News host Sean Hannity described Kennedy as the Democrats' "best option" to challenge Biden.

In recent months, Kennedy has been given platforms for his views by popular figures on the right like podcast host Joe Rogan, conservative author Jordan Peterson, and Twitter owner Elon Musk, who hosted a town hall with Kennedy on his platform earlier this year.

Kennedy has been a regular guest on conservative channels like Fox and Newsmax, where he shared theories about "ethnic bioweapons," echoing claims China has made about the United States.

His appeal seems to reach even those in the furthest reaches of the GOP. In an interview with Newsweek early in the week, Andy Roth—the head of the hard-right State Freedom Caucus Network—said some of their membership was seeking to include Kennedy on its list of speakers ahead of the 2024 presidential race.

"RFK, I think, is kind of the left's version of Trump," Roth told Newsweek. "He's saying things that the left doesn't want to hear. And it's shaking up that primary. So I think his candidacy definitely is very interesting."

In a statement to Newsweek, Kennedy's campaign appeared to downplay the appeal among conservatives, saying the trendline "reflects the fact that much of Mr. Kennedy's initial base of support is indeed from independents, many of whom are disaffected Democrats."

"The process of winning the hearts and minds of people still in the Democratic Party will take some time," the campaign added. "Mr. Kennedy has strong convictions on race and labor that appeal to traditional Democrats."

But his campaign approach also fits within a long-standing tradition of presidential hopefuls pulling their constituencies from the other major party.

Figures like "Never Trump" candidates Bill Weld and Joe Walsh notably drew the bulk of their support in the 2020 Republican primaries from liberal donors. Further back, California Republican Representative Pete McCloskey unsuccessfully challenged Republican President Richard Nixon on an anti-war platform in 1972 and after dropping out of the race said he wouldn't support Nixon.

But at this juncture, it's difficult to discern whether Kennedy's longshot bid for the White House is as a vanity candidate, a protest candidate or some of each.

Larry Sabato, a renowned political scientist and historian at the University of Virginia's Center for American Politics, told Newsweek that Kennedy fits into the mold of protest candidates throughout history like Pat Buchanan and Kennedy uncle, Ted Kennedy, who ran longshot primary bids against sitting presidents as a means of elevating issues on which they had broken with the president.

Whether it was George H.W. Bush's budgetary policies or Biden's positions on issues like COVID-19 and foreign policy, Kennedy—like the others—had grievances to air and issues he wanted to elevate.

The one distinction between Kennedy and the other candidates, however, is his seriousness, Sabato said. While Kennedy purports to be a Democrat, his views on vaccines, the veracity of the outcome of the 2020 election and other issues are largely out of step with the priorities of the average Democratic voter.

"There's no explaining it really other than the need for attention," Sabato said. "It's difficult to take him seriously because of his views. There's no one who is well-educated who believes what he believes on vaccines. There's no one who's well-educated who believes his doubts about the outcome of the [2020] election. There are all these layers of weirdness.

"More power to him. But this is not going to amount to very much in the end. If it amounts to anything, it would simply be an embarrassment to Biden on his way to getting renominated."