1 of 2 | Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced he is ending his campaign for the presidency in Phoenix on Friday, throwing his support behind Republican nominee Donald Trump. Photo by David Blakeman/EPA-EFE
Aug. 23 (UPI) — Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday suspended his campaign, saying he will remove his name from the ballot in battleground states as he endorsed GOP nominee Donald Trump.
Appearing at a press conference Phoenix, Kennedy said, “I am not terminating my campaign — I am simply suspending it and not ending it. My name will remain on the ballot in most states.”
The former Democrat, however, is in the process of removing his name from the ballot in battleground states to avoid acting as a spoiler for Trump, whom he then endorsed over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
“Three great causes drove me to enter this race in the first place, primarily, and these are the principal causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump,” he said.
Kennedy has approached both the Trump campaign and the Harris campaigns seeking to trade his endorsement for a position in the White House, but said Aug. 15 he had no plans to endorse Harris after trying to get a meeting with her campaign. The disowned scion of the Democratic Party’s most famous family said Friday he has been asked by Trump to work in his second administration.
“He suggested that we join forces as a unity party,” he said. “We talked about Abraham Lincoln‘s team of rivals, that arrangement would allow us to disagree publicly and privately and furiously, if need be, on issues over which we differ, while working together on the existential issues upon which we are in concordance.”
Kennedy’s campaign after he officially filed paperwork to drop out of the November election in Arizona.
He announced the moves as Trump prepared to hold a rally in Glendale, Ariz., later Friday with speculation mounting he would take the stage with the Republican nominee. He said he is now seeking to reverse the momentum behind Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as polls show they are expanding the map of competitive states.
As they have before, members of Kennedy’s family on Friday blasted his political maneuvers as a “betrayal” of his legacy.
“We want an America filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision of a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise and national pride,” his sister Kerry Kennedy said in a statement co-signed by four other Kennedy siblings. “Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story.”
Kennedy has abandoned the Democratic party legacies of his assassinated father, former Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and uncle, President John Kennedy. He left the Democratic Party in October after first filing a statement of his candidacy for president as a Democrat in April.
In response to Kennedy’s announcement, the Harris-Walz campaign on Friday urged his supporters to consider the Democratic ticket.
“For any American out there who is tired of Donald Trump and looking for a new way forward, ours is a campaign for you,” campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement. “In order to deliver for working people and those who feel left behind, we need a leader who will fight for you, not just for themselves, and bring us together, not tear us apart. Vice President Harris wants to earn your support.
“Even if we do not agree on every issue, Kamala Harris knows there is more that unites us than divides us: respect for our rights, public safety, protecting our freedoms, and opportunity for all,” Dillon said.