New polling released on Thursday shows that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s support has waned.
According to a YouGov/Economist poll conducted within less than five months of the election, the 70-year-old heir to the illustrious American political dynasty has only four percent of registered voters’ support. Reports indicate that Kennedy’s campaign is having trouble raising funds, and the candidate himself is losing popularity.
Joe Biden, the current president, and Donald Trump, the former president and likely Republican contender, were tied for first place in the survey.
Twelve percent of people who took the survey were undecided about which candidate to vote for.
Andrew Wroe, a senior lecturer in American politics at the University of Kent, says it is “virtually impossible” for independent candidates to win the presidency.
However, according to Wroe, independents could make a big difference in a presidential election, even when the candidate’s odds of winning are low. Since they make up around 10% of the electorate, they can have a significant impact on the outcome, particularly in close races. If they rallied around a single candidate, their voter power would be felt. However, their impact is rendered insignificant if they are distributed evenly between the two.
Kennedy published several contentious theories both before and after his presidential campaign, and the YouGov/Economist survey sought to gauge American opinion on these issues.
39% of American adults who took the survey consider the statement, “5G cellular networks are being used for mass surveillance,” to be “definitely true” or “probably true.”
The remark was somewhat true, according to 55% of those who had a positive impression of Kennedy.
In October, Kennedy announced his intention to run as an independent, abandoning his earlier ambitions to challenge Biden for the Democratic nomination.
The independent’s eligibility to be listed on Nevada’s presidential ballot is the subject of a current legal dispute. Kennedy is a registered Democrat in New York, but Democrats in Nevada are planning to sue him in state court, claiming that independent candidates are not required to do so.
