Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anticipated exit from the presidential race could benefit Donald Trump, the Wall Street Journal reports.
This would give Trump a small but potentially significant boost in the tight election fight with Democrat nominee Kamala Harris.
Kennedy filed to remove himself from the ballot in Arizona on Thursday.
Kennedy’s campaign is discussing endorsing Trump for president. The Trump camp is seeking Kennedy’s backing and has indicated that the talks remain in flux.
In comments to reporters in Arizona on Thursday, Trump said he hadn’t spoken recently to Kennedy but that an endorsement “would be a great honour”.
Asked about potential plans for them to appear together, Trump said: “No plans have been made at this moment.”
Although Kennedy is polling in the low single digits, in a close election even one or two percentage points could swing competitive states and determine the outcome.
Kennedy departing would likely result in dissatisfied Republicans being more inclined to pick Trump over Harris.
The Wall Street Journal‘s late-July poll found that Harris’s one-point lead with Kennedy in the race turned into a two-point deficit without him.
In 2016, more than 6% of voters nationally voted for a candidate other than Trump or Hillary Clinton. Those candidates won far more votes in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania than Trump’s winning margin in those states, raising the question of whether those voters would have tipped the states to Clinton if they hadn’t voted for alternative candidates.
[Image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=142541933]