Last week, officials with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign reported that Kennedy wanted to meet with Kamala Harris, possibly about a Cabinet role in her hypothetical administration, according to The Washington Post.
Harris has reportedly not responded to his proposal, and Kennedy is denying the reports.
“That’s fake news. I didn’t ask Kamala Harris for a Cabinet position but I’ve reached out to all the candidates. I’ve met with some,” he said over a TikTok livestream, per Fox News.
Kennedy also met with former President Donald Trump last month in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They discussed a hypothetical Cabinet role and an endorsement from Kennedy to Trump, but did not reach an agreement.
The state of RFK Jr.’s campaign
Kennedy looked like a promising third-party choice in the early days of the presidential race.
When compared to Trump and Biden, whose age and presidential records had come under fire from voters across the spectrum, he seemed like an exciting alternative. A pedigree that includes his father, former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, added to his allure.
But third-party candidates face a number of hurdles — including ballot access and launching a campaign without the fundraising apparatus supplied by a political party — have always found it hard to make waves in the political scene, and the swap from Biden to Harris made Kennedy’s race harder. Axios reported that Harris’ bump in poll numbers compared to Biden largely came from Kennedy supporters.
This is why Kennedy was polling around just 5% of the national vote at the beginning of August, about a week after Harris launched her presidential campaign.
Though he’s maintained a foothold with voters in some demographics, including Gen Z and Latino voters, he is unlikely to win the election, according to the New Yorker.
Will RFK endorse someone else?
While Kennedy isn’t on a winning trajectory, he could prevent Trump or Harris from winning depending on who he ultimately pulls votes from — or he could use his 5% of the vote as a bargaining tool for a position in the next presidential administration.
Trump’s meeting with Kennedy reportedly went well: Trump mentioned giving Kennedy a spot in his future administration, per Axios.
This could be a clever move on Trump’s part. Republicans tend to approve of Kennedy more than Democrats do, potentially making it difficult for Trump in swing states. Newsweek reported that Kennedy is taking more votes from Trump (10% of voters) than he is from Harris (7% of voters), while Harris leads Trump overall by 2%.
“Trump has a real incentive to get Kennedy out of the race,” said David B. Cohen, a political scientist at the University of Akron, per Axios.
Trump will at least not have to worry about RFK throwing support to Harris. In a recent post to X, Kennedy lambasted her work as vice president and wrote that he “(does) have a plan to defeat her.”
“The other candidates have met with me, Kamala Harris has said she doesn’t want to,” Kennedy said, according to Fox News. “I believe it would be tough for me to work with their administration unless they committed to a lot of different changes.”
Kennedy continues to campaign for the presidency, though Fox News reports that he is still willing to lend his support to another candidate if the candidate “share an openness about his vision for the country.”