RFK Jnr happy to trade on late uncle’s name for White House bid

Maverick third-party candidate launches ‘Viva Kennedy’ campaign aimed at Latino voters

ROBERT F KENNEDY JR is to revive his uncle’s historic “Viva Kennedy” campaign for his 2024 White House bid, despite his family’s claims his candidacy is “dangerous to our country”.

The vaccine conspiracy theorist, 70, is hoping to explicitly trade off John F Kennedy’s campaign success by launching a similar appeal among Latino voters. Mr Kennedy is the most high-profile of the third-party candidates running against Joe Biden and Donald Trump in November’s election and has qualified for the ballot in several key swing states.

On Tuesday, he will announce his running mate – a requirement to get on the ballot in some states. His most likely pick is Nicole Shanahan, a donor to his campaign, attorney and former wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Polls show Mr Kennedy polling at between 2 and 20 per cent in national surveys, while his campaign has attracted criticism from his own family members.

Mr Kennedy this week launched a series of Spanish-language adverts aimed at Latino voters across the US, according to Axios, a political news website. It is an attempt to replicate the success in the 1960 presidential election, where JFK mobilised a large number of Mexican Americans for his winning campaign.

The bid comes despite objections from Mr Kennedy’s own siblings, who distanced themselves from his presidential bid when he launched it in October and said he did not share the same values as his uncle or father, Bobby Kennedy.

“Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment,” said his siblings, adding his campaign is “deeply saddening” and “perilous for our country”. Other members of the Kennedy family have thrown explicit or implied support behind Mr Biden.

Mr Kennedy has a colourful past including accusations of spreading misinformation on vaccines, as well as the claim they cause autism in children. During the pandemic, he suggested the virus was a bioweapon “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people”, and claimed the US had “put hundreds of millions of dollars into ethnically targeted microbes”. He has long claimed “beyond reasonable doubt” the CIA was involved in the assassination of his uncle in 1963.

Major parties are concerned Mr Kennedy’s campaign could disrupt their strategy in the swing states of Arizona, Nevada and Georgia. Pollsters generally agree Mr Kennedy’s candidacy draws support from voters attracted to his unusual brand of anti-establishment vigour and conspiracy theories in an election where both main parties have accused each other of underhand political tactics.