Stateside Podcast: RFK Jr. on the Michigan ballot

Last week, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. secured his spot on the Michigan ballot. Nominated by Michigan’s Natural Law Party – the last active branch of the party – Kennedy diverges from both Trump and Biden’s platforms in different ways. Kennedy has made decreasing national debt a key element of his platform, and tends to fall in between Trump and Biden on foreign policy matters.

Historically, third party candidates have had a hard time gaining traction in the plurality system — which tends to favor two parties. Kennedy has drawn support and criticism from people who typically fall on both sides of the bipartisan spectrum. He has also continually pointed out what he sees as the shortcomings of Trump and Biden, and their respective political parties.

At his campaign event in Royal Oak on Sunday, Kennedy supporters praised his willingness to call attention to the political divisiveness in the current two-party system and for his general opposition to American military involvement outside the US. Despite his stated intent to “wind down the war machine,” he has publicly stated his support for Israel. A major criticism for many who oppose Kennedy is his rhetoric against the COVID vaccine, as well as other vaccines in the past.

To hear more about Kennedy’s campaign and the precedent of third party campaigning, listen to the Stateside podcast.

GUESTS ON THIS EPISODE:

• Jonathan Hanson, political scientist; lecturer in statistics at the University of Michigan's Ford School for Public Policy
• Tyler Scott, weekend afternoon host at Michigan Public

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