Pollster Frank Luntz suggested that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of former President Donald Trump could be a decisive factor in swing states crucial to the election outcome. Speaking with NewsNation’s Leland Vittert on Friday, Luntz discussed Kennedy’s decision to back Trump after his own independent presidential campaign. Luntz pointed out that while Kennedy’s influence has waned since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic frontrunner, his remaining supporters could still play a critical role in a close race where a few thousand votes in key states could determine the winner.
“It’s probably worth about 1% for Trump, and that 1% could be everything if it’s in the swing states. In the end, the reason why Kennedy was drawing 10, 12, even as high as 14% is because he was taking votes away from Joe Biden. Joe Biden’s gone. Kamala Harris has replaced him, and [RFK’s] vote collapsed down to about 4 or 5%, and what’s left is a Trump vote,” Luntz said. He noted that polling shows that the remaining Kennedy voters will likely switch to voting for Trump, if they participate in November at all.
“Some of them are simply not going to participate in November. Roughly two to one, the ones who are remaining will vote for Trump over Harris and that’s worth a single percent and that single percent can make the difference in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin,” he said. During the interview, Luntz also criticized the media, arguing that Kennedy’s potential impact is being downplayed based on the candidate he endorsed.
“If he had endorsed Harris, I do think he would be regarded as a hero but because he endorsed Trump, the people who are communicating that are not giving him the credit that he deserves, and I think we have to be careful in the last 73 days of this election campaign to understand the motivations of the people providing us information,” he said.
On Friday, RFK Jr. officially endorsed Trump, sending shockwaves through crucial swing states and jeopardizing Vice President Kamala Harris’ electoral prospects. The endorsement followed Kennedy’s suspension of his own campaign, which he attributed to a significant shift in the national political conversation that his campaign had helped initiate.
“It’s with a sense of victory and not defeat, that I’m suspending my campaign activities,” Kennedy said during his speech, carried on social media. He highlighted his campaign’s achievements, including collecting over a million signatures and bringing critical issues such as chronic disease, free speech, and government corruption to the forefront of the national conversation.
Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump marks a critical juncture in the 2024 presidential race, as his influence is expected to sway many former supporters in his direction. “Thank you for a job well done,” Kennedy told his supporters. “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.”
“The Democrats were the party of government transparency and the champion of the environment. Our party was the bulwark against big money interests and corporate power. True to its name, it was the party of democracy. As you know, I left that party in October because it had departed so dramatically from the core values that I grew up with,” Kennedy said. “It had become the party of war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech, and big money. By canceling the primary to conceal the cognitive decline of the sitting president.”
Political analysts indicate that Kennedy’s endorsement of Trump could dramatically shift the dynamics in battleground states where Harris had been gaining ground. Kennedy’s support is expected to help Trump consolidate a larger base, drawing in independents and disaffected Democrats. This development deals a significant blow to the Harris campaign, which had been relying on these crucial states to form a winning coalition in the upcoming election.
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