Republican pollster Lee Carter and Democratic pollster Carly Cooperman said Friday that independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s endorsement of former President Donald Trump could provide a major boost to his campaign.
Kennedy announced in a speech on Friday that he would stop campaigning in states where Trump is not running and would endorse him, only removing Trump's name from the running in key battleground states to avoid jeopardizing the results of the election. Carter and Cooperman told “Your World With Neil Cavuto” that in such a close election, Kennedy's decision could give Trump more votes to help him beat Vice President Kamala Harris. (Related: Third-party candidates undermine Biden among disgruntled Democrats, but Harris is a different story.)
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“When you look at these battleground states, Donald Trump may be leading by 0.2% on average, and even winning some of those votes could have a very big impact. And I think RFK Jr. knows this,” Carter said. “He was very enthusiastic to say, 'I'm going to withdraw my name from these 10 states because I know it could have an impact,' so I think there's a very clear directive here.”
“Polls in these battleground states are showing that removing RFK would give Donald Trump a slight advantage, and in these states, every vote really does count. This makes a lot of sense,” Cooperman said. “Democrats are much more enthusiastic about Kamala Harris as their presidential candidate than they are about Joe Biden, so there's a much stronger push for Kamala among Democrats, and so the support that RFK had in the latest polls is sure to be even more favorable for Trump now that he's been removed.”
Cooperman also noted that there is “uncertainty” about what Kennedy's supporters will do in November.
“It really depends on what the voters do. Will they stay home or will they support Donald Trump? I'm very curious now to see how RFK Jr. fits into Donald Trump's campaign, what role they'll voice for him and how they'll use that,” Carter added.
“I think Donald Trump is going to have to go back to some kind of underdog status to get RFK Jr.'s supporters on his side,” the Republican pollster said.
Kennedy's approval rating had fallen to 2% by early August. According to According to an Economist/YouGov poll, Trump is currently leading Harris by 0.1 percentage points in key battleground states. According to to the RealClearPoltics average.
The “Morning Joe” panel warned Friday how difficult it will be for Harris to beat Trump, given the extremely close race and the former president's historically positive polling performance on Election Day.
“You have to look at states like North Carolina, Arizona and of course Georgia. They might have a chance in Georgia because of low minority turnout, but they might not get close in Pennsylvania and they might not win North Carolina,” former MSNBC host Chris Matthews said. “This could be a close election. This could be the toughest election, because if Pennsylvania doesn't go their way and North Carolina doesn't go their way, it's going to be a tough election. It's a really tough election.”
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