Robert F Kennedy’s decision to break with Democrats could be factor in race for White House

In a field in Philadelphia on Monday last week some people carried banners proclaiming: “I want Camelot”.

It was nothing to do with the legendary court of King Arthur or the 1960s musical. Rather, those concerned hearkened back to the White House of John F Kennedy, his wife Jackie and brother Bobby – all relatives of the man the crowd in Philadelphia had come to see.

On the stage at Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Robert F Kennedy, nephew of JFK and son of Bobby, sought to re-energise his own bid for the presidency by leaving the Democratic Party and going out on his own as an independent.

On the home page of Kennedy’s campaign website is a collection of black and white photographs. Some show the candidate’s father, others show the candidate with his father, mother and siblings as youngsters, while others show him as a small boy with the former president Kennedy.

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The aim seems to be to reinforce the message that Robert F Kennedy, essentially, comes from a royal family in American politics.

At the start of his speech in Philadelphia, Robert F Kennedy thanked members of his family for their support. However, despite the photos on the website the wider Kennedy family of today is deeply divided on the issue of Robert F.

Members of the Kennedy family have been troubled for some time over the candidate’s scepticism about vaccines. In 2019, Kennedy’s niece Maeve Kennedy McKean, and his siblings former Maryland lieutenant governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and congressman Joseph P Kennedy II, described his vaccine stance as “wrong”.

Family members also criticised highly controversial comments made by the candidate in the summer that Covid-19 was targeted to attack Caucasians and coloured people. “The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese. We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not,” Robert F Kennedy said.

Last week family members described his decision to break with the Democratic Party of his forefathers as “dangerous to the country”.

“Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment. Today’s announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country,” Rory Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy and Joseph Kennedy II said.

This week Robert F Kennedy’s views on vaccines were back in the spotlight over a book to which he contributed the foreword. The book falsely sought to link Covid-19 vaccines to sudden deaths among healthy young people. The parents of a young boy who had not received the vaccine and who died from a brain injury wanted to know why their child’s photograph had been used in the book.

Kennedy’s vaccine scepticism has, however, made him attractive him to some key players on the right.

Influential figures such as Steve Bannon and Roger Stone went as far as suggesting he could be an ideal person to run with Donald Trump as his vice-presidential candidate.

But with Kennedy now running as an independent, most likely against Trump and Biden, some on the right have begun to get worried.

The Republican national committee said he was a “typical liberal elitist” and warned: “Make no mistake – a Democrat in independent’s clothing is still a Democrat.”

Earlier this week a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist national poll suggested that the tactic of promoting Kennedy when he was running against Biden for the Democratic Party nomination could come back to bite Republicans. The entry of Kennedy was always going to change the dynamics of the presidential contest. Both Democrats and Republicans were worried, but no one was really certain where the impact would be felt.

Kennedy himself said his intention was to spoil the election for Democrats and Republicans.

The poll this week found that Biden and Trump were still 49 per cent to 46 per cent in a two-horse race. However the entry of Kennedy gave a key advantage to Biden. The poll suggested that Kennedy would receive 16 per cent of the vote overall in a three-way contest – leaving Biden winning on 44 per cent and Trump with 37 per cent.

Crucially Kennedy was running strongly among independent voters, at 29 per cent – not too far behind Trump and Biden, who were on 34 per cent and 33 per cent.

One poll on its own does not really mean a lot. But if this becomes a trend Kennedy’s decision to go it alone could have a very significant impact on who moves into the White House in January 2025.