WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Fresh from declaring his independence from the Democratic Party, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is hitting the campaign trail as an independent candidate for president.
But don’t look for the Kennedy family scion to be laser-focused on the usual early nominating states. As the Notre Dame of presidential candidates, RFK Jr. no longer needs to play from the same political party campaign playbook.
Still, his campaign manager said the Democrat-turned-independent believes Iowa and New Hampshire remain critical to the hopeful’s road to the White House.
The environmental lawyer and son of slain U.S. Senator Bobby Kennedy announced on Monday in Philadelphia that he was leaving the party his father and uncle, President John F. Kennedy, helped lead through the turbulent 1960s.
His campaign announced a busy schedule ahead for the candidate, with stops in Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Arizona.
Over the next week, Kennedy Jr. plans to climb the stump in Dallas, Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville, Savannah and Augusta in Georgia, and Charlotte and Asheville in North Carolina. The barrage of stops is billed as a “Declare Your Independence Celebration,” fitting, his supporters might say, for a vehement COVID-19 vaccine opponent who has earned the ire of establishment Democrats and Republicans.
“The system runs on inertia, year after year, decade after decade. It’s like a runaway bus full of teenagers fighting about who should take the wheel, not realizing that the driver merely follows the GPS set by the crooked insiders and corporate lobbyists,” Kennedy Jr. said this week.
“I’m not just going to take the wheel. I’m going to reboot the GPS. And do you know who is going to set the destination? You are.”
Noticeably missing from his post-announcement schedule are the first presidential nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. RFK Jr. and his supporters claim the Democratic National Committee has rigged the nominating process for an anointing of incumbent President Joe Biden, eschewing a real contest to decide the future of the party and the country.
After the Iowa Democratic Party bowed to the DNC’s schedule change, bumping Iowa from its long-held position as first-in-the-nation caucus state, RFK Jr.’s limited presence in Iowa thus far will diminish, predicts former Iowa congressman Dave Nagle.
“Now there’s no place for him to go. There is no independent caucus,” said Nagle, who served as chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party in the early 1980s and alongside Kennedy’s brother, Joe, in congress. Nagle is no fan of RFK Jr., saying he definitely wouldn’t back the candidate who isn’t supported by his own brother.
But Dennis Kucinich, RFK Jr.’s campaign manager, told The Star News Network it’s a mistake to think the independent presidential candidate will abandon Iowa.
“Iowa has six electoral votes and the Democratic Party has forfeited those votes,” Kucinich said of Biden’s unpopularity in deep red state Iowa and his push to replace Iowa’s caucus primacy with South Carolina.
“We are going to make sure the people of Iowa are going to know we want their votes,” the campaign manager.
In fact, Kucinich said Kennedy Jr. plans to make a tour of Iowa communities in the pathways of a proposed carbon capture pipeline. The details of the tour will be announced at a later time.
Pipeline company Navigator this week said it is withdrawing its application for the Illinois portion of the 1,350-mile portion of the controversial project, and the company has asked regulators to suspend action on its application in Iowa, according to a story Thursday by Successful Farming.
Kennedy Jr. wanted to make sure the plan, opposed by landowners facing dislocation through eminent domain and those with safety concerns, is stopped altogether. Navigator’s Heartland Greenway is among three proposed pipelines in the Midwest that would capture carbon dioxide, mostly from ethanol plants, and transport it through pipelines for injection hundreds of feet below ground, Successful Farmer reported.
Unlike the crowded field of Republican candidates vying for the GOP’s presidential nomination, Kennedy Jr.’s strategy as an independent isn’t dependent on how he finishes in early-nominating states. However, it’s hard to argue against the power of momentum that a good showing in Iowa and New Hampshire can deliver. He’s got to get on the ballots first, of course.
Kucinich said the Kennedy Jr. campaign strategy is pretty simple. They’re tapping into a natural American spirit of independence to break the back of the two-party system that has “hijacked” the republic.
“The impulse towards independence is more powerful than ever, particularly given the economic needs of Americans,” Kucinich said. “That form of independence is the basis for recreating our country.”
At present, RFK’s independence movement remains a long-shot campaign.
In the most recent Messenger/Harris poll of Democrat presidential candidates, conducted October 4-7, Kennedy Jr. was at 15 percent, 43 percentage points behind Biden (58 percent). Other polls have him down by 50 percent or more, even as Biden’s job approval numbers slip below 40 percent.
Former President Donald Trump, who is dominating the field of Republican presidential candidates, leads Biden in the Harris poll (45 percent to 41 percent).
But RFK Jr.’s independent campaign, while a long shot, could take a bite out of Trump’s lead should the former president be the GOP nominee. Kennedy Jr.’s support thus far comes in no small part from independents and disaffected Republicans tired of the party establishment. Despite his far-left record on most issues, Kennedy and some big government critics on the right have found common causes in his crusade against COVID-19 vaccines, government-mandated lockdowns, and speech oppression.
As the Associated Press reported, the Republican National Committee and Trump’s campaign took aim at Kennedy Jr.’s liberal background while national Democrats stayed silent as Kennedy insisted in a speech in Philadelphia that he was leaving both political parties behind.
“Voters should not be deceived by anyone who pretends to have conservative values,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. He added that Kennedy Jr.’s campaign is “nothing more than a vanity project for a liberal Kennedy looking to cash in on his family’s name.”
Democrats know he’s a threat to their plans to retain control of the White House, too.
In Philadelphia, RFK Jr. claimed he plans to spoil the party for both Biden and Trump.
“The truth is, they’re both right,” he said.
Asked who he thought Kennedy Jr. would hurt more, Kucinich balked, insisting that Kennedy’s independent campaign will heal “the divide in America” and close “the rift that the political parties have created.”
That’s what H. Ross Perot campaigned in the three-man presidential race of 1992 that saw Democrat Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton ascend to the presidency. The argument rages 30-plus years later whether the independent businessman cost President George H.W. Bush re-election.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Robert Kennedy Jr.” by Robert Kennedy Jr.
From an article in “The Hill”;
Kennedy said that he would get behind a bipartisan assault weapons ban, which the overwhelming majority of Democrats support, but has little chance of getting through Capitol Hill given widespread GOP opposition. “If we can get a consensus on it, if Republicans and Democrats agree to it and it passes Congress, I would sign it,” he said.
A democrat is a democrat is a democrat. He also stated in the same article ….“and I’m not going to take people’s guns away.” Which counters what he said in the previous quote.
Democrats will lie through their teeth to fool you into believing them. Remember the community organizers famous quote? “If you like your current doctor, you can keep you current doctor.
As the Biden administration continues to encourage millions of illegal aliens (mostly military age males) to flood into our country, Americans are going to need their right to own firearms for self defense.
Kennedy is left of the Democrats on several issues. He would get no traction if he did not come from the tainted Kennedy clan.