‘It Doesn’t Work That Way’: Prominent Election Expert Says Not All RFK Voters Will Flock To Trump

University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato downplayed the importance of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of former President Donald Trump Monday, saying it would not sway all of the former independent presidential…

Harold Hutchison·Aug 26, 2024·3 min read

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Kennedy announced he was suspending his presidential campaign on Friday, then endorsed Trump and appeared with the former president at a rally in Arizona. Sabato said polls have shown Kennedy’s support declining for weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee.

“He has been dropping like a rock ever since Kamala Harris got in. When he started, he was in the upper teens. In some polls, he was in the low 20s and now, at best, he’s at five or six percent in some of the states and those polls are outdated,” Sabato said. “You know, we’ve had a Democratic convention. One network poll just a few days ago had him at two percent.”

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Kennedy received 5% support in a five-way race with Trump, Harris, Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein and independent candidate Cornel West, according to the RealClearPolling average of polls from July 31 to August 21, with Harris maintaining a 2% lead over Trump. Harris leads Trump by 1.5% in a head-to-head matchup in the RealClearPolling average of polls.

“For people who think that because he’s endorsing Trump, he can just move that two percent into Trump’s column, they don’t know much about

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‘It Doesn’t Work That Way’: Prominent Election Expert Says Not All RFK Voters Will Flock To Trump — IJR

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. It doesn’t work that way. It’s not going to work that way,” Sabato said. “Some of them will go to Trump, some of them will vote for Harris. Some of them may choose someone else on the ballot. There are still plenty of other candidates depending on which state you’re in. (…) I can think of, you know, several hundred things that would have more impact than RFK Jr. dropping out of the campaign and — and endorsing Trump, kind of. You know, he’s in, he’s out, he’s in here, he’s out there.”

“Frankly, it’s embarrassing,” Sabato said.

Kennedy told “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream that he would be actively campaigning for Trump, and predicted Trump would be get support from other Democrats.

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