- When RFK Jr. jumped into the Democratic presidential race, his last name immediately turned heads.
- But controversial remarks have hurt him among Democrats, while GOP voters feel the opposite way.
- In a new Morning Consult survey, RFK Jr. is underwater with Dems but is viewed favorably by GOP voters.
Before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. jumped into the 2024 Democratic presidential primary, he was widely seen as a member of one of the most storied political families in American history.
Upon entering the race, he boasted a 42% approval rating among all voters in early April, with only 24% of voters disapproving, according to a Morning Consult survey.
Despite Kennedy Jr.'s campaign against President Joe Biden, the party's 2020 standard-bearer, he still captured a 46% favorability rating among likely Democratic primary voters in April, with 24% disapproving. Among likely GOP voters that month, Kennedy Jr. was seen favorably by 42% of respondents, with 25% viewing him unfavorably.
But in recent weeks, in spite of every point that the last name "Kennedy" initially notched, his numbers have tanked among Democratic voters.
Following a string of controversy surrounding his views, Kennedy Jr. finds himself underwater with likely Democratic voters, with 41% disapproving of him and 38% approving, per Morning Consult. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points.
While a sizable bloc of Democrats are surely fine with Biden having a competitive primary given the concerns that some have expressed about his advanced age, they have likely drawn the line at the swirl of controversies brought on by Kennedy Jr., who earlier this month baselessly suggested that COVID-19 was "ethnically targeted" to certain races — while sparing Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
Kennedy Jr. now has a stunning 50% favorability rating among likely Republican voters, while 27% of GOP respondents view him unfavorably, an almost unheard-of scenario for a candidate running in an opposing party in a presidential race.
In a video posted by The New York Post at the time, Kennedy Jr. contended that there was an "argument" that the coronavirus targeted particular groups, which generated outrage from many in the public as well as several members of his own family, with sister Kerry Kennedy and nephew Joe Kennedy III condemning his remarks.
When Kennedy Jr. last Thursday appeared before the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government — a panel formed by Republicans earlier this year to probe federal law enforcement agencies — he claimed that he had "never been anti-vax." Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida sought to have him removed from the panel hearing to no avail, accusing him of making "despicable antisemitic and anti-Asian comments."
During the height of the pandemic, Republicans largely rallied against COVID-19 vaccine requirements and mask mandates even as former President Donald Trump touted his administration's work in distributing vials across the country. And the party has remained steadfastly opposed to COVID restrictions, as exemplified by the political rise of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who has made his decision to reopen schools early in the pandemic a centerpiece of his presidential campaign.
DeSantis on Wednesday floated Kennedy Jr. as someone he'd consider for a role at the Food and Drug Administration or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should he win the presidency.
Kennedy Jr.'s name may have previously evoked fond memories of his father — whose civil rights work is widely admired and whose 1968 assassination stunned the nation — but his candidacy is now increasingly turning off the very voters that he'd need to truly compete with Biden next year.