PHOENIX – Some voted for Donald Trump, others for Joe Biden. Some had never wanted to have anything to do with politics before hearing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on a podcast or YouTube video.
Lined outside a wedding hall in Phoenix, nestled between a freeway, a railroad track and a U-Haul rental center, the hundreds of people who turned out Wednesday to hear Kennedy speak had little in common ideologically. What united them was a deep-seated distrust (of the media, corporations, and especially the government) and the belief that Kennedy is the only person in politics willing to tell them the truth.
“I like that he talks to us like adults,” said Gilbert Limon, a 48-year-old pharmacist from Phoenix. “He tells you most of what you need to know. Whereas I feel like (other politicians) just give you bits and pieces to try to fit into their agenda. “I’ve had enough of that.”
Voters are not enthusiastic about a rematch between Biden and Trump, and alternatives like Kennedy or the third-party No Labels movement, which would normally be unlikely, see an opportunity. Kennedy’s appearance in a key state in 2024 highlights how he could influence the election in ways that are difficult to predict. Allies of both Trump and Biden have expressed concern that Kennedy’s independent candidacy could take votes away from their candidate in next year’s expected general election rematch.
Candidates from outside the Republican and Democratic parties rarely make a splash if they can make it to the polls to begin with. But third-party candidates don’t typically carry a famous last name like Kennedy’s or his existing network of supporters.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at a voter rally on Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023, in Phoenix. AP
Kennedy made the stop in Phoenix as part of his painstaking effort to gain entry into the 2024 presidential election as an independent candidate, which he said will require him to collect at least a million signatures nationwide. Attendees mingled in the crowd, completing their petitions to qualify in Arizona.
Access to the polls for independent and minor party candidates is an expensive and complicated process, with each state establishing its own rules. Campaigns often hire people to collect signatures and often need a small army of lawyers to challenge access rules and fight others who try to keep candidates out of the polls.
American Values 2024, a super PAC that supports Kennedy, has pledged to spend $15 million to help him get on the ballot in 10 states. Kennedy scored a victory in Utah, where the lieutenant governor pushed back the qualifying deadline from January to March after Kennedy filed a lawsuit.
Kennedy is a member of one of the Democratic Party’s most famous families: his father was the attorney general for his uncle, President John F. Kennedy. But more recently he has built closer ties with the far right, where his conspiratorial and isolationist views are at home.
Enriqueta Porras, a 52-year-old doctor from Phoenix, voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Trump in 2020. She said she is torn by the third-party conundrum. She would like to vote for someone she believes in, like Kennedy, but she also wants to make sure Biden loses and can vote strategically.
“I don’t want to be that person,” Porras said, “but I feel like there’s a lot at stake and maybe that has to happen.”
Kennedy, one of the country’s most prominent anti-vaccine activists, has long had a loyal following of people who reject the scientific consensus that vaccines are safe and effective, forming the backbone of his presidential campaign.
Christian Ortez waits in line to participate in a voter rally for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023, in Phoenix. AP
An organization Kennedy founded, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit pending against several news organizations, including The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking steps to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19. . vaccines.
Rigorous studies and real-world evidence from hundreds of millions of shots administered show that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. Deaths caused by vaccination are extremely rare and the risks associated with not getting vaccinated are much greater than the risks of vaccination.
Among the dozen Kennedy supporters who spoke to the AP in Phoenix, many share his view that corporations, especially pharmaceutical companies, wield too much power.
Debra Sheetz first started paying attention to Kennedy when she was doing her own research on the COVID-19 vaccines.
“I’ve been listening to it for the last few years,” he said. “I was very interested when he decided to take this big leap into politics because he has many good ideas. He can really talk about what people really care about.”
Sheetz, 71, voted for Biden in 2020, she said sheepishly, because she found him to have “more poise, a little more sanity” compared to Trump. But she was disappointed by Biden’s support for pandemic-era restrictions and what she sees as a loss of freedom to speak freely.
“We lost our First Amendment,” said Sheetz, who lives in Ashland, Oregon, but has spent the last few years traveling the country in his RV. “The most important thing is the possibility of sharing freedom of expression and ideas. Other ways of seeing things. If that is lost, authoritarianism is there.”
Curt Eastin, a 65-year-old professional trainer from the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, voted for Biden in 2020, but he won’t do so again. If Kennedy didn’t run, he would vote for Trump next year, he said.
“I like being able to trust him. I think it’s honest,” she said. “And even if I don’t agree with him, I know he came to his conclusions honestly. I can’t trust any of the other people.”
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. interacts with voters at a voter rally, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023, in Phoenix. AP
Kennedy is well aware that his supporters avoid the mainstream media, where journalists often point out the falsity of his vaccine claims, in favor of free alternative sources online. He said that he is getting support especially from young people, but that he is fighting with people from his own generation.
“I think the problem with baby boomers is that they get their news from MSNBC, Fox and CNN,” he told the crowd in Phoenix, which responded with boos. “While young people get their news through podcasts and other alternative sources.”
Third party or independent candidates rarely do well in presidential elections. Even the most successful recent example, Ross Perot in 1992, did not win a single electoral vote despite winning 19% of the popular vote.
Sometimes minor party candidates get enough votes that partisans blame them for tipping the scales to elect the loser of the popular vote, such as Ralph Nader in 2000 or Jill Stein in 2016, both Green Party candidates.
“One of the main reasons I like him is because of his stance on partisanship in our House and our Senate, and I like how he wants to try to bring them both together,” said Michael Chacón, a 23-year-old student in Tempe who has never voted and was still unsure if he will do so in 2024. “I think it’s a very good idea. “I think cooperation would go a long way.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn