Statement of Third Way EVP Matt Bennett on RFK, Jr. “Trump doubles down on misogyny and weirdness.”

“For the last two years, Third Way has warned that third-party candidates in 2024 are poised to serve as spoilers and aid Donald Trump. Some, like Jill Stein, remain in the race and continue to pose a real risk. Robert Kennedy, Jr. left the race on Friday, and he stipulated that his campaign would have been a spoiler. He then endorsed Trump and pledged to campaign for him aggressively.

“The deal that Trump struck with RFK, Jr. – a senior administration job in return for his endorsement – also confirms two other central realities of this campaign. First, as Trump struggles with a large and widening gender gap, he is welcoming to his team a man who has admitted to sexually assaulting his children’s babysitter and said that other such allegations are likely to emerge. He also has said he supports a federal ban on abortion, further underscoring the extremist views of the Trump/Vance ticket on issues relating to reproductive freedom.

“Second, with the addition of RFK, Trump’s weird campaign is getting a lot weirder. RFK’s bizarre behavior – posing a dead bear cub in Central Park, cutting off the head of a beached whale and lashing it to his car roof (and having his kids don plastic bags on their heads to keep off the “whale juice”), and posing with a barbequed dog – all now become part of the broader narrative about the Trump/Vance campaign.

“While the biggest of the third-party bids (No Labels and RFK) have failed, other potential spoilers remain. Most worrying is Stein, the Green Party nominee who opposed the Biden-Harris climate legislation and owns significant fossil fuel company stock. Stein also is acting like a Russian asset, parroting Putin-approved talking points, like blaming the United States for his barbaric assault on Ukraine.

“Obviously, Stein has no hope of winning. But as we saw in 2000 and 2016, in a close race, even a tiny move to third parties can be decisive. That’s why Third Way and our coalition allies will keep up our work to inform voters about Stein’s hypocrisy and divided loyalties and how a vote for Jill Stein is a vote for Donald Trump.”