Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suspended his campaign for the United States presidency and endorsed Donald Trump’s campaign.
Mr Kennedy, 70, a lifelong Democrat and a descendant of the Kennedy dynasty, said the principles that led him to leave the party now forced him “to support President Trump”.
At a press conference in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday, he said he would seek to remove his name from the ballot in 10 battleground states.
Trump later praised Mr Kennedy as “extraordinary” and “brilliant” as he welcomed him on stage at a rally in Glendale, Arizona. Democratic rival Kamala Harris said she would try to “earn” the support of Kennedy voters.
As the November election approached, Kennedy’s approval rating had fallen from double-digit highs as funding and national coverage dried up.
The son of US Senator Robert F Kennedy and nephew of President John F Kennedy, he comes from the most prominent family in Democratic politics.
His decision to back a Republican candidate for the White House has angered his relatives, who had previously condemned his mention of the family name in a Super Bowl ad in February.
His sister, Kerry Kennedy, said his support for Trump was “a betrayal of the values our father and our family held most dear. This is a sad ending to a sad story.”
“This decision pains me deeply because of the hardship it will cause my wife, my children and my friends,” Mr Kennedy said on Friday.
“But I am certain that this is what I am meant to do. And that certainty gives me inner peace, even in the storms.”
He is married to Cheryl Hines, star of the HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm. She posted on X, formerly Twitter, that she deeply respects her husband’s decision to suspend his campaign. She did not comment on his support for Trump.
Mr Kennedy told reporters on Friday that Mr Trump’s insistence that he could end the war in Ukraine by negotiating with Russia “that alone justifies my support for his campaign”.
“There are still many issues and approaches where we still have very serious differences. But we have agreed on other important issues.”
He said he would remove his name from 10 states where his presence would be a “spoiler” for Trump’s efforts. He withdrew from the battleground states of Arizona and Pennsylvania.
But election officials told the Associated Press that it was too late for him to withdraw from the swing states of Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin.
Mr Kennedy said he launched his campaign in April 2023 “as a Democrat, the party of my father, of my uncle… the people who fought for the Constitution”.
But he left because “this party has become the party of war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech, big money.”
He blamed his decision to suspend his campaign on “media control” and efforts by his former party to block him, adding: “In my heart, I no longer believe that I have any realistic path to victory against relentless and systematic censorship.”
Mr Kennedy hovered around 14% to 16% in polls when he was most popular. However, his approval rating has dropped to single digits since Ms Harris became the Democratic nominee.
During the press conference, he said he had offered to work with Ms. Harris and her White House bid.
Democrats appeared unfazed by his statement.
“Donald Trump is not getting the support he needs to build support, he is inheriting the burden of being a failed marginal candidate. How fortunate,” Democratic National Committee senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement.
Mr Kennedy’s campaign became synonymous with the anti-vaccine movement as he frequently touted his leadership of the Children’s Health Defense organization, formerly known as the World Mercury Project.
In recent weeks, Mr Kennedy has recounted dumping the body of a bear cub that was hit by a car in New York’s Central Park in 2014 as a joke.
Earlier in the campaign, he revealed that he had been infected with a brain parasite more than a decade ago, causing severe memory loss and brain fog.
His statement ended days of speculation that Mr Kennedy had offered his support to Trump to secure a role in his next administration.
Earlier this week, Trump told CNN that he would “certainly have Kennedy play some role,” while Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., said he would be good at “destroying” a federal department.
Merrill Matthews, a resident scholar at the conservative Institute for Policy Innovation, told the BBC that Mr Kennedy’s decision highlighted the two-party system in the US and how “it’s difficult to bring new ideas and new people into the process”.
Mike Wendling also contributed to this report.
