Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Drops Out of Presidential Race, Backs Donald Trump

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and expressed support for Republican nominee Donald Trump.

The 70-year-old independent candidate and son of late U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy announced on Friday, Aug. 23, that he and his running mate, Silicon Valley lawyer Nicole Shanahan, were abandoning their long shot bid for the White House and siding with the Republican ticket over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

"In an honest system, I believe that I would’ve won the election," he said during a planned speech in Phoenix, Ariz. He will remain on ballots in non-battleground states for those who still wish to vote for him, but plans to withdraw his name from states in which he believes he could become a "spoiler" candidate.

In the past month, rumors have spread that Kennedy and Trump were ironing out some sort of dropout deal, and this week, Trump teased that a "special guest" would join him onstage at his Phoenix-area rally on Friday evening.

Speaking from a restaurant before Kennedy's speech ended, Trump acknowledged the endorsement, saying, "I want to thank Bobby. That was very nice."

Originally a Democratic presidential candidate, Kennedy kicked off his White House campaign in April 2023. With a background in environmental law, he was best-known at that point for his controversies, including pushing anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and echoing antisemitic discourse.

In October 2023, after his Democratic primary campaign failed to take off, he broke from the party and announced that he would be running as an independent.

Kennedy's move to a third party threatened to siphon off votes from both Trump and then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden — who has since also dropped out of the race. More recent polls suggested that Kennedy would hurt Republicans more than he would hurt Democrats by staying in the race.

Throughout the election cycle, members of Kennedy's famous family distanced themselves from his political aspirations, including his sister, Kerry Kennedy, who issued a statement at the launch of his bid.

Kerry, who is the president of RFK Human Rights, noted in the statement that she did not "share or endorse his opinions on many issues, including the COVID pandemic, vaccinations, and the role of social media platforms in policing false information."

When Kennedy dropped out, his siblings released a statement calling his endorsement of Trump a "betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear."

"We want an America filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision of a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise and national pride," the statement read. "We believe in Harris and Walz."

Kennedy's decision to back Trump comes after reports alleged that the two held talks about partnering up in mid-July, following the assassination attempt against the former president.

In a recorded phone call between Trump and Kennedy — shared by Kennedy’s son Bobby Kennedy III on X (formerly Twitter) on July 16 — Trump told the independent candidate that he shared doubts about vaccines. Trump also said on the phone that he had something "big" in mind for Kennedy before adding "we’re gonna win," to which Kennedy responded, "Yeah."

Kennedy has since publicly apologized to Trump about the video leaking, writing on X that he "was taping with an in-house videographer" when Trump called him. “I should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately. I am mortified that this was posted. I apologize to the president.”

Trump and Kennedy also met in person in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention. Kennedy refuted claims that he was planning to bow out of the race at the time, adding that their "main topic" of conversation "was national unity, and I hope to meet with Democratic leaders about that as well."

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But on Tuesday, Aug. 20, Shanahan revealed in an interview that she and Kennedy were thinking of ending their campaign in order to help Trump.

"There's two options that we're looking at," Shanahan, an ex-Democrat, said on the Impact Theory podcast. "One is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and [Tim] Walz presidency, because we draw votes from Trump or we draw somehow more votes from Trump. Or, we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump. We walk away from that and we explain to our base why we're making this decision."