As the 2024 presidential election nears, Robert Kennedy Jr., an Independent, has generated interest among young voters and campaigned on issues that appeal to the next generation’s values.
A Quinnipiac poll showed that 40% of people ages 18-34 supported Kennedy, 36% supported Biden, and Trump trailed with 21% in December 2023.
Kennedy spent the last 40 years of his career as an environmental lawyer and worked for Riverkeeper, an organization dedicated to preserving New York’s Hudson River for 33 years. His environmental policies include the preservation of America’s wilderness and incentivizing corporations to move toward clean energy practices, according to his website Kennedy24.com.
“Right now, I’m the top choice for young voters in this country,” he said in a campaign video shared on X in March.
Annika Brown, a sophomore at Central Connecticut State University, said that she disagrees and Kennedy is no better or worse than President Joe Biden or Donald J. Trump.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t vote for him,” Brown, an Independent, said. “That’s pretty much all I have to say. Like, I don’t know. Like the other candidates, if my country was in his hands, I would be kind of scared.”
Kennedy originally planned to run against Biden in a bid for the Democratic nomination but dropped his campaign to run as an Independent in October 2023.
While his stance is clear on the environment, Kennedy spins conversations surrounding gun control and abortion to focus more on uniting the country and “healing the divide,” according to his website.
“Going after people’s guns at this point in history, to me, is just going to cause more polarization,” Kennedy said in a campaign video on his YouTube channel, “And make it so we can’t listen to each other anymore.”
Connor Cavanaugh, a senior at Central Connecticut State University, said although Kennedy’s voice is “off-putting,” he has reasonable views.
“I do like RFK as an Independent,” Cavanaugh, a Republican, said. “I don’t think he ever should have ran as a Democrat to begin with because he has very – he has a very interesting take on a lot of issues, like the CIA and his uncle, their involvement with his father. Because, you know, half his family was assassinated.”
Often considered a conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine advocate, Kennedy said in an interview with Joe Rogan in 2023 that the government has censored him for the last 18 years because of his views. Kennedy told Rogan that “they” don’t want people to know the truth and that “they” have prevented him from sharing it for years.
Despite his well-documented opinions about the COVID-19 vaccine, Kennedy told Rogan that the press has consistently misrepresented his opinions. He said that his issue is with the government taking away peoples’ bodily autonomy and forcing them to get vaccinated.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy rallied against mandatory vaccinations and spoke out against the potential elimination of religious exemptions for vaccines at an event in Connecticut in March 2019.
Kennedy claims a similar stance on abortion rights.
“I’ve said this before, that I think every abortion is a tragedy, but it’s a choice that has to stay with the women,” Kennedy said in an interview with PBS in Nov. 2023.
Kennedy proclaimed that he has fought harder for medical autonomy than “anyone else in the country,” in the PBS interview.
“So, I think he’s definitely a great Independent candidate,” Cavanaugh said. “I think he’s a good choice. The only thing that’s kind of off-putting for people is his, I think, vocal disease. So, how it’s like very hard for him to get a sentence out? Other than that, he has pretty decent views.”
Kennedy has spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological disorder that impacts a person’s voice, according to Dysphonia International.
