Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has surprising support from New Mexico voters

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris leads Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump by seven percentage points in New Mexico according to a recent poll. Meanwhile, support for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is surprisingly high here. KUNM’s Jeanette DeDios has more.

According to a poll of 585 New Mexicans by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, a political strategy firm based in London, voters here preferred Harris to Trump 44% to 37%.

But Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has earned 8% of voters in the poll, much higher than other states like Arizona and Georgia which are between 3% and 4%.

A prior poll showed Kennedy was taking more voters from Democrats than Republicans. But in this newest update, Kennedy appears to be taking a higher percentage of 2020 Trump voters than 2020 Biden voters in Michigan, Minnesota, and here in New Mexico.

New Mexico is not conventionally seen as a potential swing state. In the 2020 Presidential Election, Joe Biden carried swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada as well as New Mexico.

Voters in the poll listed the cost of living as extremely important in how they will decide who gets their vote. Coming in second was the cost of health care.

Support from the coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.