Matt Bush, FISM News
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The latest polls show Robert F. Kennedy Jr. receiving about 20% of the vote for Democratic presidential nominee as he continues to gain ground against President Joe Biden.
When RFK announced he was running, the initial USA Today poll had him at around 14% with Biden over 67%. While announcing your candidacy for the Presidency usually gives you an initial boost, opening at around 14% against an incumbent was more than most people expected.
In just two short weeks and in the midst of President Biden announcing his candidacy, RFK’s numbers did not dip. In fact, they went in the opposite direction as Real Clear Politics reports that the most recent Fox News poll had him at 19% and the Emerson poll at 21%.
The numbers are still very much in Biden’s favor, but if you combine RFK’s support with the support of the other Democratic nominee, Marianne Williamson’s support, Biden is looking at almost 30% of Democrats being ready to vote for another primary candidate.
As Biden’s numbers drop, former president Donald Trump continues to grow his lead against his most notable opponent, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.). The Fox News poll shows Trump is up on DeSantis 53% to 21% and that number continues to grow.
DeSantis has not yet officially announced his candidacy, but he is the clear second-place contender in almost every poll that is released. While some people believed that Trump’s indictment was going to give DeSantis and other contenders a bump in the polls, the opposite has occurred as described in this FISM article.
As primary season is really beginning now, most incumbent presidents do not have to focus much of their energy campaigning against members of their own party. It is usually nothing more than a formality.
The way the 2024 Presidential election is shaping up, however, the Democratic Primary may be even more exciting and contested than the Republican Primary.
.@RobertKennedyJr polling higher against Biden than DeSantis is against Trump in latest Emerson poll pic.twitter.com/lWlDTOc66k
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) April 27, 2023
One thing that might make the Democratic nomination easier for Biden to achieve is the role of the media in election-year politics. The following tweet from RFK shows but one example of what he calls being “attacked pretty solidly by the mainstream media,” going on to say that he rarely has the opportunity to answer media criticism.
47 USC 315 makes it illegal for TV networks to censor Presidential candidates but Thursday, ABC showed its contempt for the law, democracy, and its audience by cutting most of the content of my interview with host Linsey Davis leaving only cherry-picked snippets and a defamatory…
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) April 28, 2023
RFK pushed against the use of vaccines for COVID-19 and recently claimed that COVID lockdowns were systematically wiping out the American middle class, two stances that set him apart from most other Democrats.
“I want to be proud of my country,” RFK said. “I want my children to grow up in a country that they could be proud of the way I was growing up in the United States of America in the 1960s and ‘70s.”
When asked why he was running, RFK simply said that he fundamentally disagrees with the direction in which President Biden is leading the country.
To that end, RFK has challenged Biden to the debate stage on numerous occasions, but it seems unlikely that a debate between the two will happen. According to Fox News, “The Democratic National Committee has already said it has no plans to sponsor any primary debates.”
With poll numbers where they are, the DNC not sponsoring a primary debate, and the media, according to RFK, seemingly pushing for Biden to retake office, it could be an uphill battle for RFK.
According to the most recent Gallup poll, the vast majority of Americans join in RFK’s disagreement of the country’s direction. The poll was taken the same week that Biden declared his run for the presidency, as he finds himself at an all-time low approval rating of just 37%.