RFK Jr. Is Getting More Donations From Trump Voters Than Biden Voters: Politico
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File
Even though he’s considered a long-shot, many see presidential candidate and anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a possible spoiler in the 2024 race — but from whom is he really taking the support? According to a Politico report, it appears to be GOP frontrunner former President Donald Trump.
Since Kennedy took himself out of the running in a Democratic primary against President Joe Biden, the race has shifted. Now that he’s running as an independent, he’s no longer running against an incumbent in a primary, albeit one who is currently unpopular, where he didn’t have a chance in the general election. And while Trump is not the official GOP candidate, he’s far and away the favorite and remains popular among his base of MAGA supporters.
But now, voters have three options. Some will not want to vote for Biden, some will not want to vote for Trump. Some from either or both of those sets see something in Kennedy that they like, and those people are donating to his campaign instead of the others.
Politico analyzed campaign finance records for Biden, Trump, and Kennedy and found that Kennedy is attracting not just voters who didn’t support either candidate in 2020, but a lot of voters who donated to Trump in that election cycle. There were voters who switched from Biden to Kennedy as well, but the rate of Trump-to-Kennedy switches was higher:
Most of the $10 million Kennedy raised from large-dollar donors through Sept. 30 came from voters who did not make any federal donations during either the 2016 or 2020 election cycles.
Of those who did, 2,100 donors — giving nearly $2 million — previously made contributions on the Republican donation service WinRed since 2020. Far fewer donors previously gave through the Democratic tool ActBlue: roughly 1,700 contributors who gave $1.4 million.
These are donors who give more than $200 to a candidate, which federal law requires campaigns to disclose. This is what Politico studied, and they further found that “more than 500 of Kennedy’s biggest donors gave to Trump’s 2020 campaign, more than three times the number of donors who gave to Biden in that race. And in this cycle, more than 160 donors have given to both Trump and Kennedy, while only a handful have given to both Biden and Kennedy.”
Kennedy’s more fringe stances, specifically his position on vaccines, have also made him more attractive to Trump-leaning voters. But Kennedy is not only attracting Trump voters — he’s getting money from voters who have also donated to other Republican presidential candidates:
More than 160 of Kennedy’s donors have also given to biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who also brands himself as an anti-establishment candidate. Another 100 also contributed to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has leaned into his anti-vaccine stance on the campaign trail.
Kennedy’s independent streak is attracting voters looking for another rabble-rouser, it seems. And you wouldn’t call Biden a rouser of rabble.
