Source: Roy Rochlin / Getty
According to recent polling, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the highest-scoring third-party candidate since Ross Perot.
Kennedy has been averaging close to 10 percent in polling from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, making him the highest polling third-party candidate in a presidential race since businessman Ross Perot. In a five-way race that includes Jill Stein and Cornel West, Kennedy is at 10 percent in the RealClearPolitics national average.
Businessman Ross Perot ran as a third-party candidate in 1992 and was the most successful third-party candidate in recent history. He received 19 percent of the popular vote but won no electoral votes.
Like Perot, the odds of RFK Jr. winning any state are slim but it is likely that his success will negatively affect Biden in the election since polling shows that he pulls from Biden’s supporters more than Trump’s.
Biden led Trump by 3 points in a Reuters/Ipsos poll from early March, when respondents were required to choose between the two major-party candidates. But Trump led by 1 point when the poll included Kennedy, the other candidates and the ability for respondents to say they were unsure.
Kennedy’s campaign said Monday he collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot in North Carolina. Kennedy has also secured access to the ballet in Utah and he says they’ve collected enough signatures to qualify in several other states, including swing states Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, but election officials there have not yet signed off.
