RFK Jr. gets 22% in three-way showdown against Biden and Trump: poll
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. won nearly a quarter of the vote in a new poll examining a hypothetical three-way showdown in 2024.
Results of a national survey from Quinnipiac University released Wednesday showed Kennedy with 22% support among registered voters, behind President Joe Biden at 39% and former President Donald Trump at 36%, nearly a year before the general election.
A four-way race, in which left-wing activist Cornel West also ran as an independent, placed Kennedy slightly behind. That hypothesis showed Biden with 36% support, Trump with 35%, Kennedy with 19% and West with 6%.
Crucially for Kennedy, about a third of independents, as well as a third of younger voters under 35, lean toward his candidacy in each scenario. And the poll shows he has double-digit support among minority groups, including about a third of Hispanic voters.
“With minority and younger voters appearing intrigued, Kennedy, for now, enjoys the kind of demographic support that his charismatic father and uncles generated decades ago,” said Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy.
Kennedy, nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, initially entered the 2024 race seeking the Democratic Party nomination. But last month he switched to an independent candidacy after raising complaints about how Democrats have run their election process, including the lack of debates. Biden still faces primary challengers: Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), who recently joined the race, and self-help author Marianne Williamson.
Also last month, West abandonment his Green Party is committed to competing as an independent.
Biden and Trump have generally dominated their respective parties’ primary polls, while polls looking at a rematch between them in 2020 have been very close. The new Quinnipiac poll was no exception, with the Republican primary question showing Trump with 64% support over the next closest candidate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, at 15%, and a two-way race in the general election that showed Biden with 47% support and Trump with 15%. 46%.
Other options in these survey questions gave respondents the opportunity to choose someone else, say they would not vote, remain undecided, or refuse.
Another aspect examined by the survey was candidate preference. The poll found that 31% of voters had a “favorable” opinion of Kennedy, while 36% said “unfavorable.” A relatively high number (31%) said they had not heard enough about him. Biden’s numbers were 40% “favorable” and 56% “unfavorable,” while Trump got 39% “favorable” and 57% “unfavorable.”
According to Quinnipiac, the entire poll surveyed 1,610 self-identified registered voters nationwide from Oct. 26-30. The pollster said the overall poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
