RFK Jr.’s Hopes For Libertarian Nomination Dashed After Earning Just Over 2% Of Delegate Votes For The Nomination

On Sunday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a brief attempt at becoming the Libertarian nominee for president, but received a meager 2.07% of votes from just 19 delegates, ending his chances as quickly as they began. 

The 70-year-old former environmental lawyer was unexpectedly nominated by a delegate on the floor of the party’s DC convention, which prompted waves of booing from the crowd. 

Two days prior, Kennedy had spoken to convention delegates, tearing into former President Donald Trump for his response to the COVID-10 pandemic, per the New York Post. He also expressed frustration that the former president had failed to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, nor NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden during his first term in the White House, both of whom he has pledged to pardon.

Trump himself spoke before the crowd on Saturday afternoon, garnering a mixture of booing and “we want Trump” chants. 

“Nominate me or at least vote for me,” he asked the crowd. “We need your help. We need your support.” 

“We’re going to have a lot of fun,” he added, before extending his “hand in friendship” to the third party.

“Everyone here tonight believes in the same fundamental freedom of religion, freedom of the right to own a firearm, and freedom from taxation,” he said, also promising that with their support he would place a libertarian in his Cabinet, secure cryptocurrency, and commute the sentence of Silk Road dark web founder Ross Ulbricht to “down to time served,” if reelected, a key request of the Libertarian party.

He urged the crowd to nominate him rather than anyone else on the stage, including a slight dig at the party, saying, “only if you want to win. Maybe you don’t want to win.”

The Trump campaign stated that his appearance at the convention had “nothing to do” with Kennedy’s appearance there the day prior. 

Another delegate proposed Trump as a nominee for the party on Sunday, but Libertarian Party Chair Angela McArdle declared him ineligible because he failed to submit nominating papers.

Regardless of this, Trump did still garner a few votes from six delegates, who wrote him in. Another delegate also wrote in Stormy Daniels as a dig at the former president, due to her alleged affair with him.

Convention rules state that any candidate with less than 5% of the vote would be removed from contention in the first round, meaning that both Kennedy and Trump will not be the party’s nominee. 

While Trump is still set to be the nominee for the Republican party, Kennedy may not secure a nomination from a major party. He had been meeting with Libertarian officials since last summer, in hopes of securing a nomination and gaining ballot access to 38 states, compared to the six he has now. Kennedy, a former Democrat, is currently seeking the nomination for president as an independent candidate. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed that he had garnered 14% support at a national level. However, the same poll showed that his supporters would be much more likely to move on from him than any other candidate.

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