Robert F Kennedy may quit US presidential election race to help Trump win

• Independent candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr may drop out of the US Presidential race to support Donald Trump.
• Kennedy’s running mate Nicole Shanahan says they might join Trump or continue as a third party for 2028.
• Kennedy’s campaign has suffered after the Democrats replaced Joe Biden with Kamala Harris.

Robert F Kennedy Jr is considering dropping out of the US presidential race and teaming up with Donald Trump to stop Kamala Harris from winning the election, his running mate says.

Nicole Shanahan, the independent candidate’s vice presidential running mate, says the pair are considering abandoning their bid for the White House to help Trump beat the Democrats.

She says the campaign is debating whether to “join forces” with the Republican candidate, or stay in the race to help “establish ourselves” as a viable third party with sights on the 2028 election.

“There’s two options that we’re looking at and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Tim Walz presidency because we draw votes from Trump, or we draw somehow more votes from Trump,” Shanahan said.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr. Photo / Getty Images

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Speaking on the Impact Theory podcast, she added: “Or we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump and, you know, we walk away from that and we explain to our base why we’re making this decision.”

Shanahan, the Silicon Valley lawyer with deep pockets who Kennedy selected as his running mate in March, said it was “not an easy decision”.

Kennedy, 70, launched his third party presidential bid in October and surprised many pundits by securing double digits in some polls of the 2024 White House race, although his campaign suffered when the Democrats replaced Joe Biden with Harris as their candidate.

Kennedy sought a meeting with Harris earlier this month to discuss the possibility of backing her campaign in exchange for a high-level position in her administration should she win.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event. Photo / Getty Images

Harris and her advisers did not take up the offer to meet and have shown no interest in the proposal, which Kennedy called a “strategic mistake”.

He told The Washington Post: “I think they ought to be looking at every opportunity. I think it is going to be a very close race.”

Kennedy made similar overtures to Trump last month at a meeting at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee.

Kennedy also recorded a phone call between himself and the Republican candidate in which Trump said: “I would love you to do something – and I think it would be so good for you and so big for you.”