RFK Jr. endorses Trump and suspends presidential campaign

In the filing dated Friday, Kennedy said that “as a result of today’s endorsement of Donald Trump for the office of President of the United States,” he and running mate Nicole Shanahan were withdrawing their petition to appear on Pennsylvania’s presidential ballot.

Kennedy, speaking about his withdrawal in Arizona, said, “In my heart, I no longer believe that I have a realistic path to electoral victory.”

He added, “I cannot in good conscience ask my staff and volunteers to keep working their long hours or ask my donors to keep giving when I cannot honestly tell them that I have a real path to the White House.”

Kennedy said three issues encouraged him to leave the Democratic Party “and now, to throw my support to President Trump.” Those issues are free speech, the war in Ukraine, and the “war on our children.”

“My joining the Trump campaign will be a difficult sacrifice for my wife and children, but worthwhile if there’s even a small chance of saving these kids,” he said. He said that processed foods, chemicals and obesity were destroying the chronic health of children in the U.S.

But RFK Jr. also said he wasn’t “terminating” his campaign, merely suspending it, and he would remain on the ballot in many states. But he also said, “In about 10 battleground states where my presence would be a spoiler, I’m going to remove my name, and I’ve already started the process.” He said people in red states and blue states could vote for him “without harming or helping President Trump or or Vice President Harris.”

And he held out the distant possibility that if neither Trump nor Harris were able to win 270 electoral votes, tying 269 to 269, “I could conceivably still end up in the White House in a contingent election.”

Kennedy’s campaign had been seeking ballot access in states including Arizona as recently as this week, although he filed paperwork Thursday evening to withdraw his candidacy in the battleground state — a foreshadowing of his announcement. When he suspended his campaign, he was on the ballot in over 23 states and awaiting confirmation in another 22.

He will be on the ballot in the battleground state of Michigan, however.

“He cannot withdraw at this point,” a spokesperson from Michigan’s office of the secretary of state. “His name will remain on the ballot.”

RFK Jr. claimed that “in an honest system, I believe that I would have won the election.”

He blasted the Democratic Party — his former party and that of his father and uncle — saying that it has become “the party of war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech, big tech, big ag and big money.”

Kennedy thanked his staffers for their tireless work these months.

“You carried me off that glass mountain,” he said.

RFK Jr. originally entered the race as a Democrat, challenging President Biden for the nomination, before deciding last October to run as an independent. Kennedy is a bestselling author and was an environmental lawyer who worked on issues such as clean water.

Before he dropped his bid, the Democratic National Committee issued a statement deriding him, saying “desperate men do desperate things.”

“RFK Jr. was recruited by MAGA, funded by MAGA, and parroted MAGA talking points. No one should be shocked if he formalizes his relationship in an attempt to maintain relevance,” said Mary Beth Cahill, a DNC senior adviser.

In one of the more surprising revelations during his campaign, RFK Jr. also admitted that he had put a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park nearly 10 years ago.

No poll has shown Kennedy with enough support to defeat either Trump and Harris nationally or in any state, but polls during his campaign suggested he might attract enough support to make a difference in some of the battleground states where the margins of victory were thin in 2020 and 2016.

Kennedy, one of 11 children of the late Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, lost both his uncle and father to assassinations. He only received Secret Service protection last month after the assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania.

In recent years, Kennedy has promoted anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and was shunned by several members of his family who earlier this year endorsed President Biden.