With Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s announcement Friday of his plans to suspend his 2024 presidential campaign, his supporters in Georgia have begun to shift their allegiance to the major political parties’ candidates.
Kennedy’s independent bid for the nation’s highest office had always been a long shot, since either a Democrat or Republican has been elected president dating to the 19th century. National surveys of voters showed he was not building a large enough coalition to send him to office, and his campaign struggled to get his name on ballots in every state.
“In my heart, I no longer believe that I have a realistic path to electoral victory,” Kennedy said during a press conference Friday afternoon in Phoenix. “By staying on the ballot in the battleground states, I would likely hand the election over to the Democrats, with whom I disagree on the most existential issues.”
He encouraged his supporters, especially those in heavily Democratic-leaning and heavily Republican-leaning states, to still vote for him in the event that no candidate wins 270 votes in the Electoral College. But he also said he planned to “throw my support to President (Donald) Trump” and joined Trump onstage at an Arizona rally Friday night where the crowd burst into “Bobby!” cheers.
In Georgia, where voters are almost evenly divided, Kennedy’s support seemed high enough to swing the state to Vice President Kamala Harris or to Trump, the former president. In an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll conducted July 8-19, about 8% of voters said they were supporting Kennedy for president. About 3% said they were undecided, and about 1% said they were favoring another candidate, including Libertarian Chase Oliver, Green Party candidate Jill Stein and the unaffiliated Cornel West.
By Friday morning, Kathy Brito said her mind was made up to support Harris.
She had considered voting for Kennedy because she was unsure of President Joe Biden’s chances to win the election. In the days following Biden’s performance in the June 27 CNN presidential debate in Atlanta, as calls for him to exit the race grew stronger, Brito wasn’t sure any other Democratic candidate could beat Trump.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t like her. I just didn’t think she would make it,” said Brito, 64, who lives in Lawrenceville.
But after watching Harris deliver her closing speech Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, “I saw another side of her,” she said.
“I was impressed with her age and where she’s been and all the things she’s done with her life and what she wants to do,” Brito said.
Had Kennedy stayed in the race, it’s unclear whether Georgia voters would have been able to cast a ballot for him in November.
In July, the Democratic National Committee and the state Democratic Party filed legal challenges to block Kennedy and other independent and third-party candidates from Georgia’s November ballot, claiming that their campaigns improperly submitted their information to state election officials.
The Georgia Republican Party filed intervening motions, asserting each candidate should be granted access to the state’s ballot. The legal maneuvering underscores the GOP’s belief that votes for independent and third-party candidates hurt Harris more than Trump. The state’s presidential election in 2020 was decided by fewer than 12,000 votes.
With Kennedy out, Harris and Trump will have a new opportunity to court his supporters. Shabi Dev, 37, said she hasn’t made up her mind.
“I was hesitant about my vote for Kamala, and I was considering Kennedy,” she said.
Dev, who lives in Buckhead, does not want the U.S. to supply weapons or provide funding to Israel in its ongoing fight against the militant group Hamas.
“What would sway me is for (Harris and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz) to take a stronger stance on no longer giving billions of dollars in arms to that particular conflict,” she said.
In his exit speech, Kennedy endorsed Trump as the best major party candidate. He shares views with some of Trump’s supporters, including his skeptical stance against vaccinations.
Matthew Bates, 38, said he considers himself a libertarian. “I’m actually probably more socially Democratic, and I’m more fiscally Republican,” he said.
But instead of supporting Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver, who lives in Atlanta, Bates said he’s leaning toward Trump, particularly because of his approach to reproductive rights.
Trump has said he supports the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the federal right to an abortion and instead allow states to make their own decisions about the issue and that he would not ban mail delivery of abortion pills. However, abortion advocates have cautioned that the Project 2025 document, which Trump has distanced himself from even though many of his former administration officials helped write it, calls for severely limiting access to the drugs.
“One of the biggest things I’ve heard Trump talk about was all the abortion stuff,” said Bates, 38. “We kicked it back down to the states. That’s a good move, in my opinion.”
Bates, who lives in Monroe, said he typically doesn’t get involved in the discussion on abortion because “as a man, I feel like I don’t have a leg to stand on.”
“But as a woman, if it’s a state issue, you can show up and you can vote in your state. Your vote counts in your state,” he said.
Still, Bates has his issues with Trump.
“Is he freaking off his rocker half the time? Yeah, that’s the problem,” he said. “If Kennedy’s dropping out, I’m going to have to make a decision.”
