Americans are rarely treated to strong third-party bids for President, and Suffolk County is even more rarely treated to visits from presidential candidates.
Suffolk residents got the best of both worlds on Sunday afternoon as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., (RFK) stumped in Holbrook not only in his Independent bid for president, but also to obtain ballot access in New York.
In order to obtain ballot access, political candidates of any party or affiliation must obtain enough signatures from residents of a state, district, or municipality where they intend to run. Independents often have a much more difficult time obtaining ballot access, as they lack a political machine behind them, as well as the benefit of a more partisan national environment than that of yesteryear. The last strong third-party presidential candidacies were run by Ross Perot (I-TX) in 1992 and 1996.
In order to gain ballot access in New York, the RFK campaign would need 45,000 signatures from New Yorkers. Campaign volunteers were on hand at Sunday’s rally to issue petitioning kits and instructions for volunteers to door-knock in hopes of being able to vote for their preferred candidate in November.
Currently, RFK has ballot access in California, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Utah, which collectively account for 120 electoral votes, far short of the 270 required to win the presidential election.
RFK delivered a simple message to listeners at Villa Lombardi’s in Holbrook: “People will vote in this election out of fear.” He said that people are so afraid of what one political party will do that they’re forgetting what’s important in terms of policy and the direction of the country.
RFK initially mounted a long-shot primary bid against Biden for the Democratic nomination in April 2023 before suspending his campaign to run as an Independent in October.
During his speech to attendees, RFK said that the mission to obtain ballot access in New York was well underway with 20,000 signatures collected in just twelve days of petitioning. He said that his campaign estimates that he can collect 90,000 signatures, double the amount required.
RFK also discussed parallels between his campaign and the 1968 campaign of his father, who served a U.S. Senator from New York from 1965 until his assassination in 1968.
“He [RFK Sr.] was running against a Democratic President [Lyndon Johnson] of some authority,” said Kennedy. “He was running against a war [Vietnam] that was still popular with most of the American public. He was running against all the institutions of the Democratic Party. The only unions who were with him were the United Auto Works and the United Farm Workers. The liberal Democratic clubs were all against him. And I remember in March when President Johnson dropped out of the race, I realized that he [RFK Sr.] was going to win.”
RFK then said that the reason he’s behind in some of the polls is that “so many Americans are voting out of fear.”
“I have yet to talk to anybody outside of my family who says we’re voting for President Biden because he’s energetic,” said Kennedy. “Biden has $3 billion to spend on his campaign, but he’s not using that to amplify his voice, talk about his facts, his plans for the future, his vision, his promise for our country, and the American people. He’s not using it to talk about how we can solve the debt problem, the chronic disease issue, and how we can wind down the forever wars. You’ll never hear that from this campaign. Their only strategy is to try to keep me off the ballot and to make everybody terrified of Donald Trump. And on the other side, they do the same thing. They’re saying that you have to vote for Donald Trump or President Biden’s going to get in and it’s going to be the end of the republic. I say my path to victory is to convince Americans not to vote out of fear.”
Kennedy said that if he can “persuade the American public to vote out of hope, faith in their future, for a vision for this country that they can be proud of,” that he would “win the election easily.”
RFK also said that while Trump and Biden differ immensely in terms of personality and presentation, the actual issues they differ on is a “very tiny Overton window.” He says that both put too much stock into the “predictable” hot-button culture issues that are “used to divide us all,” such as abortion, guns, border security, and transgender issues. RFK said that neither candidate has the capacity to deal with issues regarding the debt.
“The debt is now $34 trillion,” said Kennedy. “We spent more money just servicing that debt than for our military budget. Within fifty years, fifty cents of every dollar that is collected in taxes is going to go to servicing the debt. Within ten years, 100% of every tax dollar collected is going to go to servicing the debt. There’s going to be nothing left for anything else.”
RFK then drew comparisons from his era to the present day.
“When my uncle [JFK] was president, 6% of the GDP went to healthcare. Today, it’s about 18% or 19%,” said Kennedy. “Almost all of it is going to chronic disease. The only thing the parties argue about is who is going to pay for it. It’s like moving deck chairs around on the Titanic. The ship is sinking and it’s sinking because we’re getting sicker and sicker. We’re the sickest people on Earth.”
RFK said that the responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic were “wrong,” including locking down the public, banning physician-recommended therapeutic products, and forcing the public to submit to vaccinations to keep their jobs. RFK said that Trump, “to his credit,” stood against those principles, but ultimately “caved to the bureaucrats.”
RFK also discussed the staggering rates of autism within the United States.
“When I was a kid, the rate of autism was one in ten thousand kids. Today, it’s one in every thirty-four children,” said Kennedy. “It’s costing our country $1 trillion a year.”
RFK also said that there are “a thousand ingredients in the food we eat in this country that are banned in Europe.”
“I’m going to unravel this corrupt merger of state and corporate power. I’m going to put this generation of kids into homes of their own, because we do not want to go from being citizens to being subjects,” said Kennedy. “We need to protect our environment, our soils, and our Long Island Sound. We need to protect the things that enrich us and connect us to Creation, and ultimately, to God.”
In closing, RFK condemned the vitriol in American politics today, saying that Americans need to “learn to live with each other and love each other again.” He then signed the petition to get himself on the ballot in New York.
Attendees then lined up to take personal pictures with RFK before the candidate spoke with the press, which consisted of local outlets and correspondents for international publications.
When asked about his “conspiracy theories,” RFK asserted that he was called a conspiracy theorist until most people saw that he was right, namely regarding the “science” behind COVID-19 measures, such as vaccination and masking.
Regarding foreign policy, namely relating to China, RFK said that military competition is bad for both the U.S. and China.
“China has been projecting economic power, it’s spent $8 trillion over the last twenty years building bridges, boarding schools, roads, and airports, while we’ve spent $8 trillion bombing bridges, boarding schools, roads, and airports,” said Kennedy. He then said that his uncle [JFK] sought to project economic power over military power.
RFK also said he would end the war in Ukraine “immediately,” and that the “relentless expansion of NATO” is not a “good thing for anybody.” He also blamed Biden for the escalation of the Ukraine War by making “Zelenskyy tear up” the agreement that saw Vladimir Putin begin pulling troops out of Ukraine.
RFK also refused to declassify his negotiating tactics regarding the flow of weapons from the U.S. to Ukraine. He also said that when it comes to negotiating, “you never trust your adversary.”
RFK also vocalized his support for Israel’s right to defend itself, stating that Hamas “hijacked” Palestine in 2006.
Regarding student debt, RFK said that he would make the debt dischargeable in bankruptcy, “like all other debts,” and that he would allow students to refinance their debts.
The Messenger discussed the candidacy of RFK with several attendees.
Jim Stevens, an entrepreneur from Bohemia, said he voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, but did not vote in 2020. He said he’s still undecided for 2024.
“My biggest issue is the discrepancy between the rich and the poor,” said Stevens. I think we need someone who’s going to come in and say ‘the middle class is screwed.’ Kids are thirty years old and can’t afford to get a house. COVID was just a cover-up for the real wealthy to get wealthier. Long Island is an area where you’re either very, very poor or very, very rich.”
Pat Curran, a financial sector employee from Deer Park, said that he voted for Trump in the last election, but that Kennedy has “the most potential of any candidate.” He says that Kennedy is “more trusted” due to his family name and the recognition it has with classical Democrats.
“I think if he and Trump got on the same ticket, they would probably take it by a landslide,” said Curran. Curran says he would prefer Kennedy as Trump’s vice presidential nominee.
Katie Plumb, a resident of Sag Harbor, said that she voted for Biden in 2020 but plans to vote for Kennedy this year.
“I’m an environmentalist and I was compelled to go to Boston a year ago when he spoke totally unscripted for two hours on five different topics,” said Plumb. “I was so impressed with his honesty and his transparency. If Americans have an appetite for truth, he’ll be president.”
Another staunch supporter of Kennedy told The Messenger that he boldly supports him because of his work suing large corporations, namely pharmaceutical companies.
“He took on the big, bad wolf and won,” said the supporter.
Kennedy currently stands at about 10% in the FiveThirtyEight polling aggregate, with Trump and Biden virtually tied at around 41% each.
