Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is ruling out a Libertarian presidential bid following swirling speculation, his campaign confirmed to The Hill on Sunday.
“Mr. Kennedy has many areas of alignment with the Libertarian Party, including a strong stance on civil liberties and keeping the country out of foreign wars,” Kennedy’s spokesperson told The Hill. “Mr. Kennedy, however, is not contemplating joining the Libertarian ticket. He is running as an Independent candidate and will be on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.”
ABC News was the first to report the decision.
“I think … we’re not gonna have any problems getting on the ballot ourselves, so we won’t be running Libertarian,” Kennedy told an ABC News reporter on Saturday.
He was speaking from Iowa, where he convened hundreds of eligible Iowa voters from at least 25 counties to gain access to the state’s ballot, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
Utah is so far the only state that has confirmed he is on the ballot, the AP added.
Speculation was raised last month over a possible Libertarian bid for Kennedy after he spoke at the party’s annual convention in California. He had casually entertained a switch after seeing increasing support from party members, strategists and activists, multiple sources told The Hill last month.
Kennedy, who switched from a Democratic to independent ticket last fall, is looking to appear uniformly on ballots across the map against President Biden and former President Trump. He has repeatedly argued the presumptive party nominees are unfit to continue serving.
Kennedy is currently polling ahead of other third-party candidates, though his numbers when against Biden and Trump have dropped in polling aggregation by Decision Desk HQ and The Hill.
He has about 7.7 percent support as of Sunday, compared to 41.8 percent for Trump and 40.8 percent for Biden. Last month, the same polling aggregates showed Kennedy with about 11 percent support.