In a Thursday announcement, Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr.’s campaign announced that it had raised $1 million for three days leading up to June 30.
Overall, the campaign has raised more than $6 million since it launched in April, per second quarter reports cited in the announcement.
“The public’s support for a courageous, authentic truth-teller,” said Kennedy’s campaign manager Dennis J. Kucinich. “We are hearing again and again that Mr. Kennedy is catching on because the public is fed up with the media smears. People are answering the attacks by opening up their wallets. RFK, Jr. has shown respect for the intelligence of the American people. The more people hear his message, the more he connects.”
Kennedy is from the well-known Kennedy family – he’s the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the late President John F. Kennedy, both who were assassinated. His supporters include Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, quarterback Aaron Rodgers, actor Alicia Silverstone, and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Last month, Axios also reported that “several of Silicon Valley's noisiest tech moguls” support his campaign.
Unlike much of the Democratic party, Kennedy has been vocally against vaccines. He has also become known for promoting conspiracy theories, according to The New York Times. These include theories that antidepressants are linked to school shootings and that the C.I.A. killed J.F.K.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer, is a leading vaccine skeptic and purveyor of conspiracy theories who has leaned heavily on misinformation as he mounts his long-shot 2024 campaign for the Democratic nomination,” the outlet said Thursday. While some polls have found that the public supports Kennedy, The Washington Post said that he is only surging in polls among Republicans.
The Atlantic published a piece Wednesday that said Kennedy’s “anti-establishment posturing,” might be popular, but that his “peculiar policy positions are not.”
His campaign issued a statement about a federal judge’s social media censorship ruling Wednesday. Kennedy’s campaign claimed that social media posts questioning the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and the legitimacy of the 2020 election would be “disallowed” with the ruling.
“The case is about blatant censorship, in which government agencies colluded with and coerced tech platforms to censor Constitutionally-protected speech,” said Kennedy.
Around the time that Kennedy announced he would run against incumbent President Joe Biden in April, POLITICO reported that there were concerns about Biden’s early fundraising efforts. Last week, CNN and Financial Times reported on the president’s latest fundraising efforts.
“In the closing days of the quarter, the campaign is ramping up its push for grassroots donors, including enlisting former President Barack Obama to tape a video with Biden to help drive small-dollar donations,” said CNN.
Jim Messina, who served as campaign manager for Obama’s re-election bid in 2012, said he thinks that Biden will have an easy time fundraising as long as Trump is the Republican candidate.
“I just think that any concern about them being able to raise the amount of money they need is just crazy,” he said, according to Financial Times. “Donald Trump is the Democratic party’s ATM. If he’s their nominee there’s going to be an explosion of fundraising.”
Trump, who has been indicted twice this year and could face prison time, raised $35 million for his 2024 campaign in the second quarter, POLITICO reported. According to FiveThityEight, Biden’s overall approval rating was slightly higher than Trump’s as of Thursday. However, Kennedy had a higher favorability rating than both candidates per recent Echelon Insights poll results.
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