Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a 2024 Democratic presidential candidate and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, is nearly tied with President Joe Biden in a recent “bombshell” poll.
The Rasmussen survey asked voters which candidate they would vote for in the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination.
President Biden earned the highest numbers, with 36% of respondents saying they would vote for him.
However, 35% said they would vote for RFK — only one point less than the current president.
Meanwhile, Marianne Williamson earned 6%, while 11% of respondents said they would vote for “some other candidate,” while 12% said they were “not sure.”
Rasmussen also asked voters their “impression” of the Democratic candidates challenging Biden.
The majority (53%) said they had either a “very favorable” or “somewhat favorable” impression of Kennedy, while 15% said they were uncertain.
This poll has caused some opponents of Biden to rejoice at the proposition of an alternative candidate winning the Democratic presidential nomination next year.
Conservative columnist David Marcus said the poll “may be a sign that many Democrats want a new direction for their far left party.”
However, others have argued that the Rasmussen poll should not be considered too closely as it was a survey of the general electorate rather than Democrat Party members exclusively.
In previous surveys that were limited to only Democratic voters, RFK earned between 14% and 19%.
Clarifying their own survey results, Rasmussen said on Twitter that President Biden is still the favored nominee for 62% of Democratic voters while 19% would vote for Kennedy.
“It’s also too early for this type of polling to actually matter,” said Liz Wolfe of Reason magazine while speaking to The Hill. “People need to take all of these really, really early polls with a ginormous grain of salt.”
Wolfe also described RFK as a “wackadoodle nutjob conspiracy theorist” who was “seeking to capitalize” on frustrations with the COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
Despite polling indicating almost 80% of Democratic voters want to see their candidates debate in 2024, RFK indicated that Biden is unlikely to agree to a debate.
“The superdelegates are very, very influential, and [Biden] will get 100% of those, so I think he’s confident at this point — or his handlers are confident — that he can win the nomination without debating me and that the debate can do nothing except put him in jeopardy,” Kennedy said while speaking with comedian-turned-commentator Russell Brand.
RFK also told Brand that the CIA was responsible for the assassination of his uncle, JFK, and has engaged in a “60-year cover-up” to hide their involvement, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.