Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might be a long shot candidate in the Democratic primary, but his campaign coffer is hardly strapped for cash. Popular Information reports that a collection of wealthy Republican donors—including Mark Dickson and Keith Sheldon—are now bankrolling the hopeful, whose support among likely primary voters has hovered in the low double digits, making him the most likely Democratic disruptor for Joe Biden’s reelection bid.
Dickson and Sheldon—who are most notably Trump donors and have never previously given to a Democrat—both donated the legal maximum of $6,600. And they aren’t outliers: Of the 96 donors to contribute the maximum to Kennedy from the start of his campaign in April through the month of June, 37 donated exclusively to Republican candidates in prior federal races. (Popular Information also found that only 19 of those 96 donors steadily backed Democrats in the past.)
One Kennedy-aligned super PAC, American Values 2024, has gotten the same treatment, with approximately half of the $10.25 million it has raised this year coming from Republicans. Kennedy also shares a few wealthy donors with Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, including David Sacks, a venture capitalist who has publicly supported DeSantis and whose PAC donated $6,600 to the Democrat; Sacks has also hosted separate fundraisers for both Kennedy and the Florida governor, according to Axios. Meanwhile, Omeed Malik, an ex-Democrat and former Bank of America executive, and Joe Voboril, one of Malik’s business partners, have also contributed to both Kennedy and DeSantis.
Why has this mass of Republican support emerged around Kennedy, who is—again—a Democrat? A lot of it likely has to do with COVID-19: Kennedy is an outspoken anti-vaxxer whose medical conspiracy theories are far more popular among conservatives than among Democrats. He previously compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to Hitler and later argued that COVID-19 mandates were creating an environment that was more oppressive than that of the Holocaust. More recently, he’s dabbled in COVID-19 race science. “There is an argument that [COVID-19] is ethnically targeted,” he said at a press dinner last week, per the New York Post. “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese…. We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not.”
Shared ideology aside, Kennedy could also be a useful asset for Republicans vying to obstruct a clean and easy nomination process for Biden. Ahead of Kennedy’s official campaign launch, CBS News’ Robert Costa reported that Trump ally Steve Bannon had spent months urging Kennedy to challenge Biden, hoping to turn the Democratic primary upside down. (Kennedy has denied the framing of that report.) Donald Trump, meanwhile, has called on Kennedy to stand strong in the Democratic primary, describing him as a “very smart…commonsense guy.”
That sentiment has only spread among conservative pundits and lawmakers of late: “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander said earlier this month that he is “thinking about voting in the Democrat primary for RFK Jr.” And former Fox News host Tucker Carlson hailed Kennedy last month for asking important questions, saying he is facing more attacks from the press than any other presidential candidate in history.
Caleb Ecarma
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