A recent poll from Monmouth University shows that independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is not gaining strong support from voters in the upcoming presidential election. Only 5% of US adults say they will definitely vote for Kennedy, with another 13% saying they probably will. This is a decrease from December, when 21% of respondents said they would back Kennedy. Among the 17% of voters who have an unfavorable opinion of both Biden and Trump, only 15% say they will definitely vote for Kennedy, while 23% say they probably will.
Director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, Patrick Murray, noted that support for Kennedy is not particularly strong even among voters who dislike both Biden and Trump. He stated that if Kennedy can’t secure a win with these voters, it is unclear what role he can play in the election other than as a spoiler. The poll results suggest that Kennedy’s impact may be minimal, potentially only affecting a very close contest.
In a head-to-head matchup between Trump and Biden, with and without Kennedy supporters included, Trump leads by a single point. Kennedy aims to be a spoiler for both major candidates, leading in a potential five-way matchup that includes Cornel West and Jill Stein. At the moment, Kennedy is averaging 10.6% support in national aggregates and will need 15% support in select polling to qualify for the debate stage in the fall.
Trump recently criticized Kennedy, calling him a “Democrat Plant” and “a Radical Left Liberal.” The poll also revealed that fewer than four in 10 Americans are enthusiastic about a rematch between Biden and Trump, although the level of excitement has increased since December. Republicans are more enthusiastic about the potential rematch compared to Democrats and independents.
The Monmouth poll also showed that Trump is viewed more favorably than Biden, with 43% of respondents holding a favorable view of the former president compared to 41% for Biden. Additionally, fewer voters had unfavorable views of Trump compared to Biden. RFK Jr. is less known, with 35% holding a favorable view of him, 40% holding an unfavorable view, and 26% having no opinion or not hearing of him. The poll surveyed 746 registered voters with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.3 percentage points.
