Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an outspoken anti-vaccine activist, announced he is running for the Democratic presidential nomination Wednesday morning.
Kennedy made the announcement at an event in Boston, where his namesake political dynasty has been based for nearly a century. Earlier this month, Kennedy filed paperwork to run for office.
Though he started his career as an environmental lawyer, Kennedy’s legacy over the past decade has increasingly been associated with spreading anti-vaccine rhetoric, medical misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Kennedy, who serves as head of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that has expressed skepticism about vaccines, has made several controversial remarks about the effects of vaccines over nearly two decades.
According to a retrospective compiled by Scientific American, Kennedy first expressed anti-vaccine sentiments in 2005 when he published a story alleging a conspiracy regarding thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that had been removed from childhood vaccines in 2001, and the connection to autism in children.
Salon, which co-published the piece with Rolling Stone, ultimately removed it in 2011, citing “revelations of the flaws and even fraud tainting the science behind the connection” made in the original story.
In the intervening years, and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy continued to publicly decry vaccines. In January 2022, he apologized for suggesting that those opposed to the COVID-19 vaccines have it tougher than Anne Frank, who died in the Holocaust.
Seven months later, he said that Children’s Health Defense’s pages were removed from Facebook and Instagram.
When it comes to fixing America’s healthcare system, Kennedy’s campaign website outlines how he would approach the issue.
“A Kennedy administration will go beyond making existing modalities available to all, to include low-cost alternative and holistic therapies that have been marginalized in a pharma-dominated system. We will move from a sick care system to a wellness society,” the webpage read.
Noticeably, the site is devoid of references to vaccines, though that didn’t stop mentions of the pharmaceutical industry from being made at his kickoff event.
Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich received a standing ovation after praising Kennedy’s “environmental record” against pharmaceutical companies.
During his speech, Kennedy received significant cheers from the crowd when he criticized the pharmaceutical industry.
Interestingly, Kennedy also criticized former President Trump for the lockdowns and stay-at-home orders that dominated the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling it “the worst thing he did for our country, for our civil rights.”
In addition to Kucinich, among those supporting Kennedy’s bid are anti-vaccine activists Del Bigtree and Steve Kirsch. Notably, most of Kennedy’s family are not supporting his candidacy, with several members having penned an op-ed in Politico in 2019 saying that he is “tragically wrong about vaccines.”
Kennedy’s candidacy, likely against incumbent President Biden, remains a longshot. Kennedy isn’t listed in RealClearPolitics’ aggregation of national polls of Democratic voters. Meanwhile, Morning Consult has Biden leading with 70% of voters’ support compared to Kennedy’s 10%. Still, Kennedy attempted to draw parallels between his underdog candidacy and that of his late father, Robert Kennedy, who ran for president in 1968 before being assassinated.
The 2024 presidential field now has two candidates with some connection to the healthcare industry.
Two months before Kennedy announced his bid, former Roivant Sciences CEO Vivek Ramaswamy announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.
For a February 2024 article about RFK Jr.’s Super Bowl ad sparking a backlash, click here.
