Independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suspended his campaign and endorsed Republican Donald Trump.
The background: Robert Kennedy, known by his initials RFK Jr, said he would remove his name from ballots in 10 battleground states likely to determine the outcome of the election and remain as a candidate in other states.
Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist who was polling in the low single digits, announced his exit from the race at a press conference in Arizona on Friday local time.
Hours after announcing the endorsement, Kennedy joined Trump at a campaign event in Arizona, where the crowd cheered the independent loudly.
Kennedy — whose father was US senator Robert F Kennedy and whose uncle was US president John F Kennedy — entered the race in April 2023 as a challenger to President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination.
He shifted his plans and decided to run as an independent. A November 2023 Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Kennedy drawing the support of 20 per cent in a three-way race with Biden and Trump.
But as the race changed quickly in the last two months — with Trump and the 81-year-old Biden bowing to pressure from his party and to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris — voter interest in Kennedy, 70, waned.
An Ipsos poll early this month indicated his support had fallen to 4 per cent.
The key quote: "I no longer believe that I have a realistic path of electoral victory." — Robert F Kennedy Jr.
What else to know: Kennedy failed to get on the ballot in even half of the 50 US states and his independent candidacy featured bizarre twists — including his claim to be suffering from a parasitic brain worm and a story about depositing a dead bear cub in Central Park.
It also drew the opposition of most of his famous family.
"Our brother Bobby's decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear," five of his siblings said in a joint statement in which they endorsed Harris. "It is a sad ending to a sad story."
