Republican strategist Karl Rove said the Democrats “should worry” about Robert F. Kennedy’s Jr. independent bid for the White House.
Democrats ramped up their criticism of Kennedy after he announced Nicole Shanahan as his running mate on Tuesday. Fox News’s Bret Baier asked Rove on “America Reports” whether Democrats should be concerned about Kennedy’s campaign potentially hurting President Biden’s reelection efforts.
“Well, they should worry. In 2016, third party candidates got 5.8 percent of the vote. That’s one out of every 17 voters cast a ballot for third-party candidates. And in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the Green Party candidate got more votes than Hillary Clinton lost some states by,” he said Wednesday.
“In 2020, 1.9 percent — one out of every 50 voters voted for a third-party candidate. And in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin, the Libertarian candidate got more votes than Donald Trump lost those states by. So even if they get a very small fraction of the vote, if it’s in the right places, it can cause a cause enormous harm,” Rove continued.
He also noted that it’s not clear in how many states Kennedy will be on the ballot.
“So we don’t know how many he’s going to end up getting. But in 2016, a dissident Republican got on the ballot in 20 some odd states and received votes in 37 states, even though he didn’t even become a candidate until the summer,” he said.
“So there’s still a chance for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to get on a large number of ballots. And one of the reasons he could get on the ballot is if he’s got enough money, which says to me, that’s the reason why he chose the former wife of one of the founders of Google to be his running mate,” he added.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that while Biden narrowly leads former President Trump in a head-to-head matchup, he slightly trails the former president when a third-party candidate is factored in.
In a three-way race among Biden, Trump and Kennedy, Trump has a 2.4-point lead over Biden, according to the national polling average from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ. Kennedy trails both candidates with nearly 10 percent of support.
The Hill has reached out to Biden’s campaign for comment.
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