'They’re delusional': GOP consultant warns Republicans not to dismiss third party threat

Although No Labels has decided against running a 2024 presidential candidate, many Democratic strategists have expressed fears that progressive Dr. Cornel West or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (both of whom are running as independents) could take votes away from President Joe Biden.

But West and Kennedy are two very different candidates. While West is a staunch progressive, RKF Jr. has more appeal among right-wing independents and conspiracy theorists. And according to reporting in Politico and NBC News, some GOP insiders fear that Kennedy could take votes away from presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

NBC News' Allan Smith, in an article published on April 22, reports, "Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he's confident that independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will pull more votes away from President Joe Biden than from him — a net win for the Republican's candidacy…. Behind closed doors, however, Trump is less sure."

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Smith adds, "A Republican who was in the room with Trump this year as he reviewed polling said Trump was unsure how Kennedy would affect the race, asking the other people on hand whether or not Kennedy was actually good for his candidacy. And after having mostly ignored Kennedy early in his campaign, Trump has stepped up his efforts to brand him as left-wing and make him Biden's problem — suggesting that he and allies are concerned about Kennedy's ability to attract Republican voters."

In a Politico article published the same day, journalists Lisa Kashinsky, Brittany Gibson, Jessica Piper and Steven Shepard report that Republicans "are waking up to the reality" that Kennedy "could sink their standard-bearer just as easily as he could hurt President Joe Biden, after a pair of new polls showed the presence of third-party candidates on the ballot might not necessarily benefit former President Donald Trump."

Consultant Alice Stewart is among the Republicans who is sounding the alarm about Kennedy's ability to take votes away from Trump.

Stewart told Politico, "If the Trump campaign doesn’t see this as a concern, then they’re delusional. They should be looking at this from the standpoint that they can’t afford to lose any voters — and certainly not to a third-party candidate that shares some of (Trump's) policy ideas."

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The polls that the Political journalists are referring to were conducted by NBC News and Marist.

The NBC News poll showed Biden gaining a two-point lead when Kennedy, West and Green Party member Jill Stein are included, and Marist's poll also showed Kennedy taking votes away from Trump.

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Read Politico's full report at this link and the NBC News article here.