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RFK's voters know they're not electing the next president. They're with him anyway
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s independent presidential campaign has drawn supporters who don’t see themselves represented by Democrats or Republicans. Although he likely won’t win the 2024 presidential election, who shows up to vote for him could help determine if President Biden or Former President Donald Trump do.
JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images/AFP
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JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images/AFP
NASHVILLE – Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s presidential campaign is the political equivalent of a Rorschach test: it’s open to interpretation, it aims to be a lot of different things to a lot of different people and its significance and meaning are squarely in the eyes of the beholder.
Kennedy’s independent bid is marketed as an alternative choice for those who don’t like President Biden, former President Donald Trump or the two-party system the country operates under.
Democrats and Republicans see the campaign as a threat that could siphon away enough of their voters in key swing states to tip the election to the other side.
But what about his supporters?
They’re people like Susan Parker, who traveled from Norman, Okla., to Nashville this month for a comedy show put on by the campaign at the historic Ryman Auditorium.
Despite never donating to a presidential candidate before, Parker maxed out campaign contributions to RFK, as he’s often known, after listening to him speak on various podcasts and in other longform interviews where he shared his political philosophy.
“I feel like I’ve gotten to know him as a person, I see him think and everything,” she added. “So that’s what excites me about him being in this race – it’s a third choice.”
Susan Parker came from Oklahoma to Tennessee to hear Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. speak at a campaign comedy show. She donated the maximum amount to his independent presidential run and feels he is inspiring compared to President Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Stephen Fowler, NPR
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Stephen Fowler, NPR
Parker, clad in a shirt that reads “The Remedy is Kennedy 2024,” has historically voted for Republicans, including Trump, and says her choice is less about voting against Trump and Biden and more about enthusiasm for Kennedy himself.
“He inspires me personally, and I enjoy listening to him talk,” she said. “I have a little bit of a cringe factor when I listen to the other two major candidates.”
So many of RFK’s supporters mention his candidacy as an important alternative representing issues that are most important to them.
“I certainly align with him on his views on the health of America and his wanting to get us all more healthy,” she said. “I didn’t know what his stances were on other political areas like the war and the middle class, but as I listened to him, I realized, no, he knows what he’s doing. He knows what he’s talking about. And I like what he’s saying.”
What draws people to RFK?
She’s not alone. An overwhelming issue of importance to Kennedy supporters is health, and more specifically vaccines. It’s part of his campaign’s embrace of skepticism about the government’s role in, well, everything.
Brittany Ruiz from nearby Franklin, Tenn., said at the comedy show that she considered Kennedy a longtime family friend after years of work in opposition to vaccine mandates.
Ruiz said while she’s a fan of Trump, Kennedy is better on the things that matter to her, like tackling corruption, standing up to big pharmaceutical companies and rolling back government agencies’ purview in daily life.
“I would say that RFK Jr. has been strong on all the issues I feel like all of us want to be talked about or want to have addressed and want to have handled,” she said. “And so for me, my allegiance is more toward the fact that he is speaking on issues that no other candidate is talking about. That’s why I’m a big fan.”
Many of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s campaign supporters say his views on improving health are important to them, and push back on claims that he is anti-vaccine.
Stephen Fowler, NPR
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Stephen Fowler, NPR
Outside of a recent rally in Austin, Tony Farmer told NPR that Kennedy’s focus on addressing the rise of chronic disease diagnoses is a crucial issue he feels Biden and Trump don’t adequately discuss.
“I like that RFK Jr.’s actually addressing the why: why our nation is so sick?,” he said. “Because to me, nothing’s more important than our health. Health is an economic issue. Our health is a social justice issue. Our health is an environmental issue. It’s tied up into so many other things. To me, it’s one of the most important things and it’s not being talked about.”
It’s important to note Kennedy supporters interviewed by NPR push back against claims that he is anti-vaccine, or that they are either.
Farmer, for example, pointed to Kennedy’s record as an environmental lawyer – like cleaning up the Hudson River and suing Monsanto over cancer-causing chemicals – as something that gets overlooked by the talk of vaccines.
“This dude is a badass activist, and it seems like all people know about who haven’t researched him is, like, he’s anti-vax, he’s anti-vaccine, he’s anti-vaccine,” Farmer said. “And when you actually listen to him talk, he’s not anti-vaccine. He wants safe vaccines.”
But in listening to Kennedy, or his vice presidential pick Nicole Shanahan, skepticism of vaccinations and conspiracies about their effects dominate campaign conversations more than mentions of Monsanto or global conflict, inflation or immigration.
And Kennedy’s rise to political prominence cannot be seen without looking at his role fighting against current vaccine standards.
Like the nebulous inkblots of a Rorschach test, Kennedy’s supporters see the candidate’s activism and ideology differently than how they believe the mainstream media, Democrats and Republicans portray him.
“When I started hearing him talk and actually like listening to the words that he was saying,” Farmer said, “it’s like, wow, what I’ve been hearing in the media about this guy isn’t true. He’s not crazy. He’s not a kook!”
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. speaks at the Libertarian National Convention on May 24, 2024 in Washington, DC. Kennedy is seeking qualification to be part of the first presidential debate currently scheduled on June 27 between Democrat President Biden and Republican, former President Donald Trump.
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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
Distrust of the existing political system
While waiting for the RFK rally in Austin, Cathleen Yanco and Paul DeSantis shared why they support his campaign.
“Paul started following him first, and I was like, ‘I can’t believe you’re following him, you know he’s anti-vax, he’s this, he’s that’,” Yanco said. “And I did do the Google searches to try and find what I could on him, and it was all just the soundbites, the negative soundbites.”
After doing more research, including hearing more of Kennedy’s thoughts about things like freedom of speech, affordable housing and the influence of money in food, pharmaceuticals and other industries, Yanco said she apologized to DeSantis for initially criticizing his support for Kennedy.
“I do question everything I hear now,” she said. “I feel like my eyes have been opened since learning about Kennedy and looking a little more in depth, not just mainstream and not just Joe Rogan’s podcast, not the popular stuff, but going a little more in depth. And I’m actually quite upset that I was fooled like that.”
Yanco voted for Democratic candidates in the past and said she is open minded to the platform of any candidate running, but said she does not currently trust what Democrats or Republicans say.
Her thoughts echo that of many RFK voters who say they feel like the two major parties don’t have a place for “normal people” who don’t have extreme views.
Tony Farmer, at that same Austin event, said his disconnect with the Democratic Party is over foreign policy.
“Remember when Democrats were taking George Bush to task for the wars in Iraq? What happened to the anti-war left? Where did it go?,” he asked. “I feel like I’m staying still for the most part, and the Democratic Party is just moving further and further left.”
Farmer said Kennedy’s views and platform excites him and provides a new opportunity to buck a polarizing two-party system.
“It’s at a point where I can’t have an honest, open debate with someone and say something against Trump without someone being ‘Well, you must love Biden then,’ or you can’t say anything bad about Biden without someone saying ‘You must love Trump, then,’” he said.
“It’s such a mess.”
Don’t call him a spoiler
The next president will likely not be Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He faces an uphill battle to get on the ballot in all 50 states, let alone to win significant share of the popular vote, but that’s not deterring those who have already committed to vote for him.
Susan Parker at the campaign comedy show in Nashville, said RFK’s campaign is raising more awareness of the importance of who our politicians are and how they impact policy.
“There will be victory to be claimed, because I think a lot of people will take notice that didn’t take notice before like myself,” she said. “And it’s very exciting to finally be part of an election process.”
On that note, every Kennedy supporter interviewed by NPR at these two events did not think they were wasting their vote, despite no real path to victory, and despite the likelihood that his presence could who ultimately does win: Biden or Trump.
“I don’t want to be told ‘Well, if you support Kennedy, then that means Trump’s going to get into office,’” Cathleen Yanco said. “Well, we need some changes. And unless we start somewhere, even if that means the potential for someone I detest getting into office… so be it.”
“A vote for Kennedy is a vote for Kennedy, he’s not a spoiler for anyone,” Paul DeSantis added. “I mean, all we want is another voice in America, and he’s it. We’re just tired of the division between the two parties.”
The Kennedy-shaped inkblot that’s still very much up to interpretation is how his voters will impact the 2024 presidential rematch between Trump and Biden.
These RFK voters have previously voted for Democrats and Republicans, vote both regularly and infrequently and cut across a demographic and ideological spectrum.
Both Democrats and Republicans share concerns that RFK’s independent bid will draw enough disaffected voters from their party to tilt the scales in an election that could once again be decided by narrow margins in a handful of states.
Who Kennedy’s voters could or would otherwise support is harder to gauge this far out from November, though there are signs that his independent campaign is focused on one side of the aisle.
An NPR review of campaign finance records show roughly 95% of RFK’s itemized donors have not given money to a presidential candidate since 2020. Of those who have, almost all contributions were to Republicans.
Kennedy and Shanahan’s prominent views around vaccine skepticism cut across the ideological spectrum, while conspiracies around the coronavirus are also more commonly found on the political right.
Last week, RFK spoke at the Libertarian Party’s national convention, attacking Donald Trump over his response to the pandemic and unsuccessfully sought the party’s nomination for president.
Ultimately, RFK’s impact will come down to a few basic metrics: what states the campaign successfully gains ballot access in, how many of them are swing states, how strategically swing voters view their choices and how many RFK voters actually show up to the polls.
NPR’s Ashley Lopez contributed reporting.
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Brass bands in Beijing make way for sticker shock at home as Trump returns to escalating inflation
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump returned from the spectacle of a Chinese state visit to a less than welcoming U.S. economy — with the military band and garden tour in Beijing giving way to pressure over how to fix America’s escalating inflation rate.
Consumer inflation in the United States increased to 3.8% annually in April, higher than what he inherited as the Iran war and the Republican president’s own tariffs have pushed up prices. Inflation is now outpacing wage gains and effectively making workers poorer. The Cleveland Federal Reserve estimates that annual inflation could reach 4.2% in May as the war has kept oil and gasoline prices high.
Trump’s time with Chinese leader Xi Jinping appears unlikely to help the U.S. economy much, despite Trump’s claims of coming trade deals. The trip occurred as many people are voting in primaries leading into the November general election while having to absorb the rising costs of gasoline, groceries, utility bills, jewelry, women’s clothing, airplane tickets and delivery services. Democrats see the moment as a political opportunity.
“He’s returning to a dumpster fire,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of Groundwork Collaborative, a liberal think tank focused on economic issues. “The president will not have the faith and confidence of the American people — the economy is their top issue and the president is saying, ‘You’re on your own.’”
The president’s trip to Beijing and his recent comments that indicated a tone-deafness to voters’ concerns about rising prices have suggested his focus is not on the American public and have undermined Republicans who had intended to campaign on last year’s tax cuts as helping families.
Trump described the trip as a victory, saying on social media that Xi “congratulated me on so many tremendous successes,” as the U.S. president has praised their relationship.
Trump told reporters that Boeing would be selling 200 aircraft — and maybe even 750 “if they do a good job” — to the Chinese. He said American farmers would be “very happy” because China would be “buying billions of dollars of soybeans.”
“We had an amazing time,” Trump said as he flew home on Air Force One, and told Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview that gasoline prices were just some “short-term pain” and would “drop like a rock” once the war ends.
Inflationary pain is not a factor in how Trump handles Iran
Trump departed from the White House for China by saying the negotiations over the Iran war depended on stopping Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
That remark prompted blowback because it suggested to some that Trump cared more about challenging Iran than fighting inflation at home. Trump defended his words, telling Fox News: “That’s a perfect statement. I’d make it again.”
The White House has since stressed that Trump is focused on inflation.
Asked later about the president’s words, Vice President JD Vance said there had been a “misrepresentation” of the remarks. White House spokesman Kush Desai said the “administration remains laser-focused on delivering growth and affordability on the homefront” while indicating actions would be taken on grocery prices.
But as Trump appeared alongside Xi, new reports back home showed inflation rising for businesses and interest rates climbing on U.S. government debt.
His comments that Boeing would sell 200 jets to China caused the company’s stock price to fall because investors had expected a larger number. There was little concrete information offered about any trade agreements reached during the summit, including Chinese purchases of U.S. exports such as liquefied natural gas and beef.
“Foreign policy wins can matter politically, but only if voters feel stability and affordability in their daily lives,” said Brittany Martinez, a former Republican congressional aide who is the executive director of Principles First, a center-right advocacy group focused on democracy issues.
“Midterms are almost always a referendum on cost of living and public frustration, and Republicans are not immune from the same inflation and affordability pressures that hurt Democrats in recent cycles,” she added.
Democrats see Trump as vulnerable
Democratic lawmakers are seizing on Trump’s comments before his trip as proof of his indifference to lowering costs. There is potential staying power of his remarks as Americans head into Memorial Day weekend facing rising prices for the hamburgers and hot dogs to be grilled.
“What Americans do not see is any sympathy, any support, or any plan from Trump and congressional Republicans to lower costs – in fact, they see the opposite,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Thursday.
Vance faulted the Biden administration for the inflation problem even though the inflation rate is now higher than it was when Trump returned to the White House in January 2025 with a specific mandate to fix it.
“The inflation number last month was not great,” Vance said Wednesday, but he then stressed, “We’re not seeing anything like what we saw under the Biden administration.”
Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 under Biden, a Democrat. By the time Trump took the oath of office, it was a far more modest 3%.
Trump’s inflation challenge could get harder
The data tells a different story as higher inflation is spreading into the cost of servicing the national debt.
Over the past week, the interest rate charged on 10-year U.S. government debt jumped from 4.36% to 4.6%, an increase that implies higher costs for auto loans and mortgages.
“My fear is that the layers of supply shocks that are affecting the U.S. economy will only further feed into inflationary pressures,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon.
Daco noted that last year’s tariff increases were now translating into higher clothing prices. With the Supreme Court ruling against Trump’s ability to impose tariffs by declaring an economic emergency, his administration is preparing a new set of import taxes for this summer.
Daco stressed that there have been a series of supply shocks. First, tariffs cut into the supply of imports. In addition, Trump’s immigration crackdown cut into the supply of foreign-born workers. Now, the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has cut off the vital waterway used to ship 20% of global oil supplies.
“We’re seeing an erosion of growth,” Daco said.
Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, the Food and Drug Administration’s top drug regulator, said she was fired from the agency Friday after she declined to resign.
She said she did not know who had ordered her firing or why, nor whether Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. knew of her fate. The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The departure reflected the upheaval at the F.D.A., days after the resignation of Dr. Marty Makary, the agency commissioner. Dr. Makary had become a lightning rod for critics of the agency’s decisions to reject applications for rare disease drugs and to delay a report meant to supply damaging evidence about the abortion drug mifepristone. He also spent months before his departure pushing back on the White House’s requests for him to approve more flavored vapes, the reason he ultimately cited for leaving.
Dr. Hoeg’s hiring had startled public health leaders who were familiar with her track record as a vaccine skeptic, and she played a leading role in some of the agency’s most divisive efforts during her tenure. She worked on a report that purportedly linked the deaths of children and young adults to Covid vaccines, a dossier the agency has not released publicly. She was also the co-author of a document describing Mr. Kennedy’s decision to pare the recommendations for 17 childhood vaccines down to 11.
But in an interview on Friday, Dr. Hoeg said she “stuck with the science.”
“I am incredibly proud of the work we were doing,” Dr. Hoeg said, adding, “I’m glad that we didn’t give in to any pressures to approve drugs when it wasn’t appropriate.”
As the director of the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, she was a political appointee in a role that had been previously occupied by career officials. An epidemiologist who was trained in the United States and Denmark, she worked on efforts to analyze drug safety and on a panel to discuss the use of serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the most widely prescribed class of antidepressants, during pregnancy. She also worked on efforts to reduce animal testing and was the agency’s liaison to an influential vaccine committee.
She made sure that her teams approved drugs only when the risk-benefit balance was favorable, she said.
The firing worsens the leadership vacuum at the F.D.A. and other agencies, with temporary leaders filling the role of commissioner, food chief and the head of the biologics center, which oversees vaccines and gene therapies. The roles of surgeon general and director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are also unfilled.
The U.S. Supreme Court
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The U.S. Supreme Court refused Friday to allow Virginia to use a new congressional map that favored Democrats in all but one of the state’s U.S. House seats. The map was a key part of Democrats’ effort to counter the Republican redistricting wave set off by President Trump.
The new map was drawn by Democrats and approved by Virginia voters in an April referendum. But on May 8, the Supreme Court of Virginia in a 4-to-3 vote declared the referendum, and by extension the new map, null and void because lawmakers failed to follow the proper procedures to get the issue on the ballot, violating the state constitution.
Virginia Democrats and the state’s attorney general then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to put into effect the map approved by the voters, which yields four more likely Democratic congressional seats. In their emergency application, they argued the Virginia Supreme Court was “deeply mistaken” in its decision on “critical issues of federal law with profound practical importance to the Nation.” Further, they asserted the decision “overrode the will of the people” by ordering Virginia to “conduct its election with the congressional districts that the people rejected.”
Republican legislators countered that it would be improper for the U.S. Supreme Court to wade into a purely state law controversy — especially since the Democrats had not raised any federal claims in the lower court.
Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Republicans without explanation leaving in place the state court ruling that voided the Democratic-friendly maps.
The court’s decision not to intervene was its latest in emergency requests for intervention on redistricting issues. In December, the high court OK’d Texas using a gerrymandered map that could help the GOP win five more seats in the U.S. House. In February, the court allowed California to use a voter-approved, Democratic-friendly map, adopted to offset Texas’s map. Then in March, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the redrawing of a New York map expected to flip a Republican congressional district Democratic.
And perhaps most importantly, in April, the high court ruled that a Louisiana congressional map was a racial gerrymander and must be redrawn. That decision immediately set off a flurry of redistricting efforts, particularly in the South, where Republican legislators immediately began redrawing congressional maps to eliminate long established majority Black and Hispanic districts.
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