Now Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is telling his supporters to vote for former President Donald Trump no matter where they live.
When Kennedy partially pulled out of the presidential race last month, he asked supporters to back Trump in key swing states, but to still cast a ballot in his favor if they lived in solidly Republican or Democratic states.
On Tuesday, ahead of Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris first onstage meeting, the now former independent presidential candidate changed his tune.
Bottom line: No matter what state you live in, VOTE TRUMP, Kennedy advised in a post on X. A Trump victory is a Kennedy victory.
In a linked video he explained that voting for Trump is the only way that we can get me and everything I stand for into Washington, D.C. and fulfill the mission that motivated my campaign.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday that his supporters should vote for former President Donald Trump regardless of where they live. He originally asked supporters to select Trump only if they lived in swing states
Kennedy made the announcement ahead of former President Donald Trumps (left) and Vice President Kamala Harris first meeting - on the debate stage in Philadelphia. Kennedy is expected to be one of Trumps surrogates in the spin room Tuesday
He added that a contested election would further fracture the country and so Trump needed to win in a landslide in both the popular and Electoral College vote.
Trump lost the popular vote in both 2016 and 2020 - but won the Electoral College count in 2016, awarding him his one term in office.
Kennedy launched his presidential run in April 2023 as a Democrat attempting to challenge President Joe Biden.
The move alienated members of his famous political family.
His father was the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated while running for president in 1968. His uncle was the late President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963.
The prominent anti-vaxxer irrirated his family more when he announced last October that he would run as an independent instead, spending the subsequent months trying to get his name on ballots across the U.S.
Democrats feared that he could become an election spoiler, tossing the race to Trump.
And then a day after the Democratic National Convention, Kennedy traveled to Arizona where he sort-of endorsed Trump.
I would like everyone to know that I am not terminating my campaign, I am simply suspending it and not ending it, Kennedy said. My name will remain on the ballot in most states.
He said he would move to pull his name off the ballot in 10 key swing states and encouraged his supporters who lived in those places to back the Republican nominee.
I was surprised to discover that we are aligned on many key issues, Kennedy said of Trump.
In those meetings he suggested we join forces as a unity party, the independent continued. We talked about Abraham Lincolns Team of Rivals.
That arrangement would allow us to disagree publicly and privately and fiercely if need be on issues over which we differ, while working together on the existential issues upon which we are in concordance.
Kennedy is one of the surrogates that will be on hand Tuesday night in Philadelphia to bolster Trumps case in the spin room.
At the same time, the Democrats have been holding members of Kennedys family close.
On Friday, his nephew, the grandson of JFK, Jack Schlossberg, visited President Joe Biden at the White House and was seen filming Biden flying to Michigan on board Marine One.