Posted on 10/05/2023 6:10:36 AM PDT by Red Badger
Vocal about his opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine, adamant about physical fitness and bearing a historic namesake — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. first posed as an interesting shake-up to the 2024 presidential race after announcing his candidacy in April.
But as Kennedy is expected to announce his switch from the Democratic Party to an independent ticket, strategists on both the right and the left are downplaying his impact on the race. Instead, they’re more concerned with a different third-party candidate: Cornel West.
West, a prominent left-wing academic and philosophical writer, announced his run for president June 5. The Green Party candidate is running on a policy platform that includes forgiving “all student debt,” conducting all elections through the use of “hand-counted paper ballots,” imposing term limits for members of Congress, implementing “Medicare for All,” breaking “up Big Tech” and disbanding NATO, according to his campaign website.
“Cornel West is a much bigger threat than RFK Jr. largely because black voters are the biggest part of the Democratic base and have been for years, particularly black women. And so a black candidate is naturally going to pull more black votes than a White candidate like RFK Jr.,” GOP consultant Mark Weaver told the Daily Caller.
Kennedy saw a spike in support within the Democratic Party early in his campaign, hitting a peak of 21%, according to an April 27 Emerson College poll. The number declined in the following months, and Kennedy now appears to be more popular with Republicans, according to a July Morning Consult survey.
A majority of Republican voters believe the country needs a third-party option because the two primary options do “such a poor job” of representing the American people, according to a Wednesday Gallup poll.
That approval among Republicans can most likely be attributed to Kennedy’s stance on vaccines: he is the founder of Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine organization that has linked vaccinations to children developing autism, despite a lack of scientific evidence. He released a book entitled “The Real Anthony Fauci” in November 2021, accusing the former White House senior medical advisor of participating in “a historic coup d’etat against Western democracy.”
GOP consultant and MWR Strategies president Mike McKenna noted that while Kennedy has the name recognition as the son of the former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, he believes the organization behind Cornel West’s campaign means more in the 2024 election.
“The real third-party threat in this race is not RFK Jr. The real third-party threat is the Green Party,” McKenna told the Caller, noting the Green Party candidate affected Hillary Clinton’s race for president in 2016. “Cornel West doesn’t have the name ID behind RFK Jr., but he’s probably got a better organization behind him.”
Democratic strategist Brad Bannon echoed these sentiments while additionally predicting the Biden campaign will run ads within the next year that feature prominent members of the Kennedy family, such as JFK’s daughter Caroline.
“I just don’t see where RFK Jr’s support comes from as an independent,” Bannon told the Daily Caller. “Because a No Labels candidate, if there was one, has a base and financial support. Cornel West obviously has a base, a small base. I think [RFK Jr.] is pretty much going to fall by the wayside, because I just don’t think he even has a small definable base, that I know of.”
No Labels is a national political movement that has previously discussed offering an independent candidate to run in the 2024 presidential election, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Scott Jennings, a longtime GOP adviser in Kentucky and veteran of numerous campaigns, predicted West will attract enough voters to potentially pose a threat to Biden.
“Plenty of progressives live around places like, say, Madison, Wisconsin, who would love to vote for Cornel West and stick it to the establishment,” Jennings told the Caller.”If all these people were to make ballots all over the place, especially in the key states, I definitely think there’s a world where they get a significant amount of votes — at least enough votes to potentially swing something.”
“I think both campaigns are right to worry about the impact of third parties here,” Jennings continued.
Jennings added there is a softness to Biden, especially as concerns about his age and fitness for president continue to increase. A majority of Americans, 77%, believe Biden is too old to govern the country effectively, according to a recent AP/NORC poll. At least 73% of Americans think the president is too old to run for reelection in 2024, a Monday poll by The Wall Street Journal shows.
Even though some consultants believe West is more of a threat than Kennedy, Democratic strategist Leslie Marshall told the Caller both Trump and Biden’s campaigns should still consider Kennedy’s expected move to the independent category as a threat.
“This could hurt Trump equally as much as it could hurt Joe Biden. It is concerning,” Marshall told the Caller. “It is concerning on both sides because the country is so divided. And right now, depending on what polls you believe, Trump and Biden are very close.”
“But I think right now the data shows that he will actually chip away a bit more for Trump than he will for Biden,” Marshall added.
Insert LBJ quote…
West isn’t going to run. He has zero chance of winning, and he won’t upset the Democrap apple cart.
He’s just making noise to get a fat payoff.
West is part of the establishment. The black part.
The Green Party candidate is running on a policy platform that includes:
* Forgiving “all student debt,”
* Conducting all elections through the use of “hand-counted paper ballots,”
* Imposing term limits for members of Congress,
* Implementing “Medicare for All,”
* Breaking “up Big Tech”
* Disbanding NATO
... according to his campaign website.
Except for forgiving student debt and Medicare for all, These could have been written right here on FR..................
They fail to understand RFK Jr role. The Uniparty has been testing this ploy in a number of states over the last decade. Now they think it i time to unleash it on the national elections
You have the Uniparty candidate in the race. He faces a formidable non party challenge. So the Uniparty recruits a spoiler. The spoiler runs their whole races specifically to split the anti Uniparty candite vote in to smaller fragments. The run on the same issues with roughly the same solutions as the anti Uniparty candiate.
RFK Jr is the uniparty spoiler. That is his only role in the race.
I saw a media talking head interview a black man coming out of a GOP rally, and he was asking him (incredulously) how he could even go there "as a black man" (you see, the democrats OWN them, like slaves)
The man said "We've been voting democrat for years. Maybe it's time we stop thinking that we're poor, so we must vote Democrat, and start thinking maybe we're poor BECAUSE we vote democrat."
I thought the reporter was going to faint.
What else is new? As a demographic, blacks are the most racist people in America. The absurdity is how liberal whites follow their lead so as to appear in "solidarity with the poor oppressed black man."
What a crock.
If West is so much more threatening why is he at 3% and RFK Jr at 15-20 (with minimal to negative media coverage).
His policy promises are just words to get votes.
None of them will be accomplished.
They do echo some of the “fed up” American sentiments but...they sound kinda white IYKWIM.
His popularity as a black politician in Black America is not that solid since Obama didn’t deliver.
:: He’s just making noise to get a fat payoff. ::
Bernie Sanders in blackface.
Cornel needs a new home in the Hamptons, yo.
Vivek Ramaswamy
One critical thing for this race all right leaning citizens can do is help the Green Party get on the ballot in swing states. Sign any petitions that go around even consider donating money. The Democrats will use any means fair or foul to try to keep the Green Party off the ticket. We must make sure that does not happen - especially in swing states.
Probably. He is the primary spoiler who has failed.
RFK Jr is the General Election spoiler.
The Uniparty has almost endless resources. A good chunk of all that Ukraine money never leaves the US. We should not think that because they are pure evil they are stupid. They are very far from stupid.
If you have a political party whose power base is poor, oppressed, marginalized, uneducated people, you are going to make damn sure you NEVER RUN OUT of poor, oppressed, marginalized, uneducated people.......................
West won’t even get 1%. The vast majority of people have no idea who he is.
The Democrats have thousands of dirty tricks ready to undermine West.
He is too dumb to know what he is up against....
That’s who I’ll send my $100 to.
The biggest threat is allowing biden to speak in public on camera. Gaffe-o-matic
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