Editor’s note: RFK Jr. suspended his campaign at the end of August. To see how Kamala Harris and Donald Trump compare, click here.
(NewsNation) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s stances on key issues like vaccines and the Russian-Ukraine war have made headlines during his campaign to challenge Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
Kennedy’s campaign, which includes lawyer and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan as vice presidential running mate, has lagged far behind Trump and President Joe Biden before the latter’s withdrawal form the race.
Kennedy’s favorability rating was a crucial factor in determining his prospects as a third-party candidate in the presidential race. As a candidate outside the traditional two-party system, he faces a unique set of challenges in garnering widespread support. His favorability rating provides insight into the extent of his appeal to voters across the political spectrum.
Ahead of the 2024 election, NewsNation is committed to covering the issues that matter most to voters so they can make the most informed choices possible at the polls. You can also read similar policy breakdowns for Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Here’s what you need to know about Kennedy and his political views:
- Abortion
- Vaccines
- Foreign policy
- Border Crisis
- Economy and healthcare
- Transgender Athletes
- Jan. 6 Capitol riots
- Gun control
- Third-party potential
Who is RFK, Jr.?
The son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated while running for president in 1968, Kennedy struggled with drug addiction in his younger years. After being convicted of possession of heroin, Kennedy completed drug treatment and volunteered with the Natural Resources Defense Council as part of his probation.
Kennedy would go on to eventually become an environmental lawyer, working on a number of issues. He has been openly critical of the U.S. military’s environmental damage and worked on behalf of minority and Indigenous communities on issues of pollution and land rights.
Kennedy has a medical condition called adductor spasmodic dysphonia, which affects his speech. Court documents also revealed he had neurological issues caused by parasitic worms in his brain and mercury poisoning.
RFK Jr. and Abortion
Kennedy, who referred to the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump as “depressing”, said that abortion should be the choice of the woman. In his real-time response to the debate, Kennedy said that state intervention on the issue of abortion should not happen until a fetus reaches viability. He also said that he does not support late-term abortions.
However, he also said he felt that “every abortion is a tragedy” and that most women have abortions because they can’t afford to have the child. If elected, he pledged to put money into child care, which he said would stop abortions.
“My policy is more choices, fewer abortions.”
RFK Jr. and Vaccines
Kennedy pushes back against critics who say he has anti-vaccine views. During a June 23 town hall hosted by WMUR-TV, Kennedy said if he were president, he would mandate pre-licensing safety trials for vaccines and “allow parents to make of their minds about whether they want to use vaccines for their children.”
“What I’ve said is I’m pro-science and pro-safety and we ought to subject vaccines… to at least the kind of rigorous placebo-controlled trials that are mandated for every other medicine,” Kennedy told WMUR.
Vaccines are tested extensively by manufacturers before the FDA issues a license.
A vaccine being developed for distribution in the United States goes through two separate research phases before an initial three phases of clinical trials, according to the Food And Drug Administration. Those trials test the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. By the time it reaches the third phase of initial clinical trials, the vaccine is generally given to thousands of people, and researchers compared those who received the vaccine against those who received a placebo.
In some cases, the FDA requires additional post-market studies or clinical trials for continued research.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says immunization is the best protection against certain illnesses. Annually, tens of thousands of people get sick from diseases that could be prevented by vaccines.
RFK Jr. and Foreign Policy
Kennedy has made peace a priority when it comes to foreign policy, promising to “end the proxy wars, bombing campaigns, covert operations, coups, paramilitaries, and everything else that has become so normal most people don’t know what’s happening.”
He’s specifically vowed to end the war in Ukraine. His plan to stop the fighting includes offering to withdraw U.S. troops and missiles from Russia’s borders and convince Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
“UN peacekeepers will guarantee peace to the Russian-speaking eastern regions,” Kennedy said on his campaign website. “We will put an end to this war.”
During the first presidential debate, Kennedy slammed Biden for the Ukraine war, saying the president wanted to weaken Russia.
“Putin was asking to settle this war from the beginning,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy also defended Israel’s right to respond to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, saying that Israel had a moral obligation to do so. He believes the United States and the rest of the international community could have done more to help Israel prevent the conflict, according to Reuters.
Kennedy has said that the U.S. “must support Israel” above all else. Kennedy said he was “heartbroken” over “bloodshed in Gaza” but that we must understand that “Israel is in an existential battle.”
Border Crisis
Kennedy visited the nation’s southern border last year, calling it a “dystopian nightmare.” Kennedy said during his real-time response to the presidential debate on Thursday that the U.S. Mexico border must be sealed.
Kennedy agreed with Trump when it comes to border protection, saying that Biden stopped the construction of the wall and dismantled other security measures leading to mass border crossings.
He said he interviewed people coming through, and only two people had asylum claims, which made him concerned about terrorists coming into the country. He also blasted Biden’s “catch and release” policies.
The presidential candidate described seeing hundreds of people cross the border, a seemingly “hopeless” situation he said was “created by the federal government, that local people are being forced to hold the bag on.”
“It’s extraordinary,” Kennedy told NewsNation. “It’s kind of the best part of America and the worst part at the same time.”
During WMUR’s town hall, Kennedy said he’s “not a big fan of Trump” or his border wall. After speaking with officers patrolling the border, however, he said physical barriers are necessary in some areas with high-density populations and advocated doing more to keep migrants and U.S. citizens safe from cartels.
Kennedy also advocated for expanding America’s immigration process by adding more immigration judges and agents to quickly deal with asylum claims and aid in preventing illegal border crossings.
Economy and Healthcare
Kennedy has said he will enact policies that favor “small and medium businesses” and break up “too-big-to-fail” banks and monopolies.
“When crisis strikes, bail out the homeowners, debtors, and small business owners instead,” Kennedy said on his campaign site.
Kennedy also wants to provide tax-free government-backed mortgage bonds to lower the interest rate. He would pair this plan with an aggressive affordable housing program, Reuters reported.
He also believes healthcare is a key economic issue, and has vowed to make existing services available to all, including “alternative and holistic therapies that have been marginalized in a pharma-dominated system.”
Kennedy told Reuters he believes abortion is a “tragedy” but that it should be a woman’s right “throughout” the pregnancy.
Transgender Athletes
The question of trans athletes in gender-restricted sports has received more attention amid a wave of proposed legislation this year.
Kennedy is opposed to transgender athletes competing in sports outside of the sex they were assigned at birth. During a podcast that has since been removed from YouTube for sharing misinformation, Kennedy leaned into the baseless theory that chemical exposure to herbicides causes “sexual dysphoria,” Politifact reported.
In an interview with NewsNation’s partner The Hill, however, Kennedy said he’s opposed to “mean-spirited” legislation and supports peoples’ “gender choices.”
Jan.6 Capitol Riot
Kennedy called the events of the Jan. 6, 2021 a “protest that turned into a riot” in an appearance on “CUOMO,” adding that his belief on whether it was an insurrection depends on how the word is defined.
“If your definition is armed men who are intending to take over the United States government, then it wasn’t that,” Kennedy said. “I think there were people there who wanted to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the other’s. I would say it was a very traumatic day in our nation’s history and people committed criminal acts. Those people deserve to be in jail.”
Saying his purpose is not to “exonerate” them, but rather to “restore peace,” Kennedy said he would appoint a special counsel to determine whether the sentences of Jan. 6 convicts are appropriate.
“I think we’re living in a time when Americans don’t trust their government anymore and that is really what the problem is,” he said on “CUOMO.“ “There is no trust in government and we need to restore that trust.”
Kennedy got some backlash after his campaign sent out a fundraising email that said people who were facing charges connected to the Jan. 6 riot as “activists” who were “stripped of their constitutional liberties.”
He told NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo that his team “made a couple of mistakes,” and that it was his responsibility.
“We have a lot of hardworking people on the campaign but we’re all drinking from fire hoses,” Kennedy said.
Campaign spokesperson Stefanie Spear said the emailed statement “was an error” that had been inserted by a new marketing contractor and “slipped through the normal approval process.” That marketing vendor’s contract has since been terminated.
Gun Control
Kennedy said during WMUR-TV’s town hall that he believes in gun control but won’t “take people’s guns away.”
“I’m not going to take people’s guns away and I believe in gun control myself.”
He also came under fire for baseless comments he made during a Twitter Spaces event when he seemingly linked mass shootings to pharmaceutical drugs.
Third-party Potential
Kennedy flirted with the idea of running on the Libertarian Party ticket before cementing his run as an independent candidate, raising alarm bells for Democrats who fear he will dent President Biden’s reelection prospects.
In an interview with CNN host Michael Smerconish in January, Kennedy, who has been chided for aligning with certain right-wing political and anti-vaccine sympathies, openly acknowledged that a Libertarian Party bid could be tempting, especially since he is well-regarded among the party’s top leadership.
“That’s something that we’re looking at,” Kennedy said. “We have a really good relationship with the Libertarian Party.”
Climate Change
Kennedy references himself on his campaign site as “the best environmental president in American history,” pledging to protect the environment from “corporate corruption” and contamination.
An environmental lawyer for 40 years, Kennedy has sued companies including Mobil Oil, DuPont, Mitsubishi, and Ford over chemical spills and pollution. He also founded the environmental organization Waterkeeper Alliance, from which he resigned in 2020.
Despite those accomplishments, Kennedy received backlash from other environmental groups upon entering the 2024 race. Organizations including Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters denounced in an April letter Kennedy’s “false environmentalist claims.” The criticism appears to be at least partially rooted in Kennedy’s past comments about vaccines.
If elected, Kennedy says he would reduce toxic chemical pollution and plastic waste, protect natural wildlife habitats, and “end the corporate capture of environmental regulatory agencies.”
Social Security
Kennedy has promised to cut military spending in half and instead put that money into government-subsidized child care and Social Security funding.
His economic plans include reigning in spending on military adventures and regime-change wars in areas like Ukraine. Money spent on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Libya is enough to make social security solvent for another 30 years, he said.
Opioid Crisis
Kennedy says he would end “the failed War on Drugs,” grant amnesty to nonviolent drug offenders, and transition prisons to strive for rehabilitation.
He’s been open about his 14-year struggle with addiction and says he’s spent his life “studying recovery.” Rather than imprisoning people living with substance use disorder, Kennedy said rehabilitation will yield better outcomes.
“We should have east rehabilitation centers available for them,” he told Fox Carolina News earlier this year. “We need to heal our country.”
Kennedy has more than 40 years of sobriety.
