Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scourge of Big Pharma and scion of one of America’s most powerful political families, has filed a run for President in a challenge to Joe Biden. The Telegraph has more.
Mr Kennedy, 69, filed a statement of candidacy on Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, which would likely pit him against incumbent Mr. Biden, who is expected to declare his own run for 2024.
The former attorney becomes the second candidate to throw their hat in the ring for the Democratic nomination after self-help author Marianne Williamson declared a run.
Mr. Kennedy’s chance at ending up in the White House is a long shot. Mr. Biden, 80, the oldest president in U.S. history, still has considerable support among Democratic voters.
Mr. Kennedy is the son of former New York Senator, U.S. Attorney General and assassinated 1968 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy.
He was once a bestselling author and environmental lawyer and had been long involved in the anti-vaccine movement, but the effort intensified during the Covid pandemic.
Kennedy is founder and Chairman of Children’s Health Defense (CHD), an organisation which seeks to protect children from harmful medical interventions and other damaging exposures. Since 2021 Covid vaccines have been prominent among its concerns. In 2020 CHD’s revenue was $6.8 million, according to filings made with charity regulators, more than double the level the previous year.
Kennedy hinted in March that he was considering a run. He told a crowd in New Hampshire: “I am thinking about it, yes. I have passed the biggest hurdle, that my wife has greenlighted it.”
He later posted on his Twitter account: “If it looks like I can raise the money and mobilise enough people to win, I’ll jump in the race. If I run, my top priority will be to end the corrupt merger between state and corporate power that has ruined our economy, shattered the middle class, polluted our landscapes and waters, poisoned our children, and robbed us of our values and freedoms. Together we can restore America’s democracy.”
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