The 2024 U.S. presidential election was given a new layer of clarity on Friday, with Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announcing that he has suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump.
Kennedy, 70, initially ran in the Democratic primaries against President Joe Biden, though he switched his affiliation to Independent prior to any primary contests.
Known as a long-time anti-vaccine advocate, Kennedy Jr. has not previously held public office nor ran for office, though he had previously weighed campaigns for statewide offices in New York in the 2000s.
Kennedy Jr. is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, a former U.S. Senator from New York who was the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968 when he was assassinated, happening amid a whirlwind of political turbulence that year that concluded with Richard Nixon winning the presidential election.
Kennedy’s 2024 campaign picked up considerable steam after switching his affiliation to Independent, garnering support from voters who were unenthused by both the Democratic and Republican ticket.
Kennedy also drew notable support from fellow celebrities who have voiced skepticism over the effectiveness of vaccines, including New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, actress Jenny McCarthy and former Utah Jazz superstar John Stockton.
Though Kennedy has endorsed Trump according to a court filing, the Independent candidate had previously reached out to Vice President Harris, inquiring on a possible administration role in exchange for an endorsement, according to the New York Times.
While Kennedy had previously polled in the double digits earlier this year, his campaign has freefallen in recent weeks, with the suspension of President Biden’s campaign and the emergence of several past controversies dampening enthusiasm for Kennedy’s run.
Kennedy’s earlier polling performances suggested that he could be the most viable third-party candidate in a presidential election since Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996, who received 18.9% and 8.4% of the popular vote in the elections, respectively.
Third-party candidates have failed to garner 5% of the vote in an election since, though Ralph Nader of the Green Party managed 2.74% of the vote in 2000, while Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson collected 3.28% of the popular vote in 2016.
Current third-party candidates remaining in the race include Chase Oliver of the Libertarian Party, Jill Stein of the Green Party and Independent Cornel West, among others.
According to the campaign websites of the three candidates, none of them will appear on the ballot in Illinois, though Oliver, West and Stein are operating write-in campaigns in the state.
The general election will be held on Nov. 5, though early voting in Illinois will begin in late September.