Robert F Kennedy Jr suspends presidential campaign

Anti-vaccine advocate and conspiracy theorist endorses Republican candidate Donald Trump

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump with Robert F Kennedy Jr at a campaign rally at the Desert Diamond Arena, in Glendale, Arizona, on August 23, 2024. AP

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Robert F Kennedy Jr suspended his long-shot presidential campaign on Friday and announced his decision to endorse Republican candidate Donald Trump in the November 5 election.

“I'm going to remove my name, and I've already started that process and urged voters not to vote for me,” he said during a press conference from Arizona.

“It's with a sense of victory and not defeat that I'm suspending my campaign activities.”

Mr Kennedy said he was throwing his support behind Mr Trump, referring to several conversations and meetings with the Republican candidate.

The Associated Press reported before Mr Kennedy's speech that a Pennsylvania court filing stated he would be endorsing Mr Trump. The filing also asked to remove him from the state's ballot for the November.

Reuters reported on Thursday that Arizona officials said Mr Kennedy had filed paperwork to remove himself from the presidential ballot there, too.

Mr Kennedy is the son of former attorney general Robert F Kennedy and a nephew of former president John F Kennedy.

He first entered the 2024 presidential race as a Democrat but left the party last autumn to run as an independent.

He built an unusually strong base for a third-party bid, fuelled in part by anti-establishment voters and vaccine sceptics who have followed his anti-vaccine work since the coronavirus pandemic.

But he has since faced strained campaign finances and mounting legal challenges, including a recent ruling from a New York judge that he should not appear on the ballot in the state because he listed a “sham” address on nominating petitions.

Many members of Mr Kennedy's extended family have been outspoken in criticising his political views and some publicly endorsed President Joe Biden before he dropped out of the race. They have since backed Kamala Harris.

“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,” it read.

“We believe in Harris and Walz.

“Our brother Bobby's decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story.”

The announcement comes one day after Ms Harris formally accepted the Democratic nomination, and caps a week in which Mr Trump has sought to blunt her momentum with a series of splashy campaign events and media engagements.

The Republican nominee is also expected to appear – with a “special guest” – in Arizona later on Friday following Mr Kennedy’s announcement.

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At the height of his campaign in January, Mr Kennedy was polling as high as 20 per cent in a three-way race with Mr Trump and Mr Biden in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls.

“I believe that I would have won the election in a system my father and my uncles thrived in – a system with open debates, with fair primaries, with regularly scheduled debates … and with a truly independent media untainted by government propaganda and censorship, in a system of non-partisan courts and election boards, everything would be different,” he said.

By mid-July, his share had declined to about 8 per cent.

Mr Biden’s decision to drop out and pass the baton to Ms Harris shook up the race and dealt Mr Kennedy another blow, with his average polling support dropping to 5 per cent within days.