March 27, 2024 - 4:00pm
Robert F. Kennedy Jr is considering putting his name on the Libertarian ticket come November.
He’s currently running as an independent, but the Libertarian Party could be his best pathway to the ballot in all 50 states; he’s currently only on Utah’s ballot, and his campaign and super PAC have said he has enough signatures to get on seven more — a far cry from what he’d need to win 270 electoral college votes.
This week, the 70-year-old announced his running mate, attorney Nicole Shanahan, to the disappointment of libertarians. Shanahan, a registered Democrat and ex-wife of Google’s co-founder, donated more than $4 million to RFK Jr’s campaign, much of it to help fund his Superbowl ad. She previously supported President Joe Biden.
Past Libertarian candidates have been strongly aligned with the party. For example, there was 2016’s Gary Johnson, who was famously so unconcerned about foreign policy that he had never heard of Aleppo, or 1998’s Ron Paul, a staunch libertarian. But RFK Jr breaks with them on several key issues.
The candidate is libertarian on foreign policy, criticising US support for Ukraine and calling politicians who support direct confrontation with Iran “warmongers”. He also aligns with libertarians on abortion, which he supports throughout pregnancy, and vaccine mandates, which he famously opposes.
However, the candidate endorses more government power than libertarians would be comfortable with on a number of fronts: gun control, economics, the environment. Far from a free market absolutist, he supports nearly doubling the federal minimum wage to $15, providing government-funded childcare, restricting natural gas exports and using government power to bring down housing costs.
Nevertheless — and perhaps most importantly for libertarians — RFK Jr wants to limit the power and size of the federal government. “Government and tech platforms conspire to surveil and censor the public. Regulatory agencies have been captured by those they are supposed to regulate… Pharma controls the CDC, NIH, and FDA. Big Ag controls the USDA. Big Tech has captured the FTC”, his site reads.
He has called for greater government transparency, protecting whistleblowers and restricting the circular movement of lobbyists between government and lobbying jobs. He’s pledged that, as president, he would pardon Julian Assange.
His best-known critiques of government power involve the handling of the pandemic. RFK Jr had been a vocal critic of civil liberties violations during the pandemic, including vaccine mandates and the closure of businesses and houses of worship, as well as coordination between government and private social media platforms to censor dissent.
The former Democrat’s distrust in the feds is likely related to his belief that the CIA was responsible for the death of his uncle, John F. Kennedy, one shared by a substantial portion of Americans, and he has speculated the agency was responsible for his father’s killing too.
Since the US has a two-party system, with third-party candidates standing no realistic prospects in a presidential race, those who vote for Libertarian candidates tend to be very ideologically committed. The party’s theme for its 2024 conference is “become ungovernable”, and their platform endorses the legalisation of recreational drugs and prostitution, along with a number of proposals far outside the political mainstream.
While RFK Jr may not be a perfect ideological match, he does align on a number of issues, not least scepticism about the role of government. For Libertarian voters, whose other choices are an increasingly populist GOP and a Democratic party that strongly supports Big Government, that may well be enough.
Main Edition
US
FR
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeBefore Bobby Kennedy chose Nicole Shanahan as his running mate, I thought sure he would try to win the Libertarian Party nomination. That would get him on the ballot in all 50 states. Otherwise there is no way he makes it on all.
Now I am not so sure he will go Libertarian. Nicole Shanahan is no Libertarian. Just the opposite. “I think that a lot of libertarians are a little bit confused over why he chose Nicole Shanahan. I’m sure she’s a lovely person, but she doesn’t necessarily fit into alignment with any of our views,” Libertarian Party Chair Angela McArdle said in an interview.
While Bobby Kennedy made a stir when he attended the state Libertarian Party convention here in California a few weeks ago, that was before his selection of “lovely person” Nicole Shanahan. At that time Jesse Ventura was in the running as VP, and he’s a solid libertarian choice. No more.
There are already 34 candidates for the Libertarian Party nomination, to be decided by delegate vote at the national convention in Washington DC in two months. I didn’t recognize any names on the list except Jon Stewart, and he’s not the comedian (though he once was a professional wrestler, a la Jesse Ventura). Bobby Kennedy would likely take the convention by storm if he wanted to.
The main black mark against Bobby Kennedy is his support of Israel against the Palestinians in the Gaza War. That’s a big issue for Libertarians. Libertarianish senator Rand Paul was famously the only senator last October to refuse to cosponsor a resolution supporting Israel. 99 to 1.
If Bobby Kennedy wants to go Libertarian, he’ll have to make some compromises. Nicole Shanahan will too. Will they want to? I doubt it.
Even if they did, the Libertarian Party nomination might cost the two of them the very voters they seem to be courting — liberal women and the like. So I think it’s unlikely they will take the needed steps. But time will tell.
Do you think Kennedy is a bigger threat to the Dems or Republicans? I can’t figure that part out.
That’s a good question. I don’t have a good answer. Nor does anyone else seem to. Bobby Kennedy is a quirky candidate, with no experience in business or government, so it’s hard to see why he has any appeal to anyone. Obviously, though, he does.
The only threats, as I see it, are in the battleground states. In California, I may throw my vote to RFKjr just because. If only between Biden or Trump, I’d pick the latter, and I speak as a lifelong progressive blue Dem—prior to 2020, anyway. There are things I like about A Trump and things I like about Kennedy, but there’s pretty much zilch I like about Biden. No surprise, since I find the entire Democratic Party has lost their ever-loving minds.
Mr Dangar – RFK has been an incredibly successful litigator and activist and has won billions of dollars of settlements. He is a very intelligent, knowledgeable and capable person.
I was convinced he was a bigger threat to the Republicans because of his Libertarian streak drawing a big chunk of the GOP base, but since he chose the leftist Shanahan, I’m flummoxed. To me he sold out any appeal at all that he had to conservative voters. He is now going to draw many center-left Democrats who are fed up with the lies and mismanagement of the Biden White House. IMHO, this was deliberate. I was becoming something of a believer in RFK Jr, but now I think his candidacy is a deliberate torpedo to sink Biden in 2024. Whatever else, it’s huge fun!
Libertarian- where everyone is a chief and there are no workers.
Libertarian- political Scientology
RFK Jr is not remotely libertarian; the article is really grasping at straws.
Also, the last I heard the Libertarian Party has been taken over by a fairly hardcore crew who thought Gary Johnson was too much of a squish. Hard to imagine a crowd like that wanting to nominate RFK Jr.