Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Reuters
Don’t look now, but anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is polling close to 20 percent in some Democratic primary surveys.
A USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll published on April 19 had him at 14 percent, with New Age guru Marianne Williamson garnering 5 percent support. Since then, a more recent Emerson College poll has him at 21 percent, while Williamson is at 8 percent. And a Fox News poll has him at 19 percent, with Williamson at 9 percent.
While it seems highly unlikely that Kennedy, who recently launched his campaign to challenge President Joe Biden, will play a decisive role in the 2024 election, he could potentially embarrass the president (probably not to the degree his famous uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy, embarrassed then-President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 primary—but surely no incumbent president wants to find a Kennedy in the primary soup).