President Joe Biden appears to be the de facto Democratic Party nominee for 2024, but that has not stopped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from pushing forward in his longshot campaign.
RFK Jr.’s campaign reported Thursday that he raised $3 million in just three days toward his effort. The haul came June 28-30, just before the second-quarter filing deadline.
He has roughly $3 million cash on hand and has raised more than $10 million since announcing his candidacy in April, the campaign said.
“We are hearing again and again that Mr. Kennedy is catching on because the public is fed up with the media smears,” campaign manager Dennis Kucinich, the former mayor of Cleveland and a former Democratic congressman from Ohio, said in a statement.
“People are answering the attacks by opening up their wallets. RFK, Jr. has shown respect for the intelligence of the American people. The more people hear his message, the more he connects,” Kucinich said.
Kennedy has been attracting attention. He has been as high as 20% in some polls in a national matchup against Biden, The New York Times reported. More than 40% of Republicans view him favorably.
Campaigning in New Hampshire, Kennedy, the 69-year-old son of assassinated former presidential candidate and U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, has been critical of the media and Biden. He said he wants to debate Biden.
“Places like CNN, which have invited many of the Republican candidates who have much, much less polling support that I do, to do town halls and express themselves on their important TV shows, has not treated me that way. I think that’s interesting,” Kennedy told Fox News.
There has been controversy in New Hampshire about when to hold the Democratic primary. The Democratic Party wants South Carolina to vote first in 2024.
“We ought to have a real contest,” Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and vaccine skeptic, told Fox News. “We ought to have retail politics and town halls and debates and open primaries so the Democrats can choose the candidate who’s going to be most effective in running against our Republican adversary.”
“For a small group of people in the DNC to pick that candidate without input from the public, … I think [that] is wrong,” Kennedy said.
If Kennedy attracts a large percentage in any primary, it could be an embarrassment for Biden, who has started attending some campaign events called “Investing in America.”
“The more Americans learn about the president’s investing in America agenda, the more they support it,” Ben LaBolt, the White House communications director, told The New York Times. “That’s a huge opportunity for us.”
