OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Third-party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed his choice for vice president this week and it has Republicans fired up.
RFK Jr. announced this week that he has chosen Nicole Shanahan, a 38-year-old lawyer and businesswoman, to serve as his 2024 running mate.
It did not take long for former President Donald Trump, the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee, and others to respond to the announcement.
“RFK Jr. is the most Radical Left Candidate in the race, by far. He’s a big fan of the Green New Scam, and other economy-killing disasters,” Trump said Wednesday on TRUTH. “I guess this would mean he is going to be taking votes from Crooked Joe Biden, which would be a great service to America.”
Trump continued: “His running mate, Nicole Shanahan, is even more ‘Liberal’ than him, if that’s possible. Kennedy is a Radical Left Democrat, and always will be!!! It’s great for MAGA, but the Communists will make it very hard for him to get on the Ballot. Expect him, and her, to be indicted any day now, probably for Environmental Fraud!”
“He is Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, not mine,” Trump added. “I love that he is running!”
Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk shared the news on X, saying, “RFK’s VP choice, Nicole Shanahan, is a six-figure donor to… George Gascon, the pro-crime, Soros-backed prosecutor who helped wreck San Francisco and is currently wrecking LA. She also spent big on Measure J, a Los Angeles measure to reroute spending from law enforcement and prisons to “social services” and “mental health treatment” — in other words, not putting criminals and dangerous psychos behind bars.”
“This is a far-left pick by RFK, who is apparently looking to shore up his progressive bona fides. Major red flag for commonsense independents and centrist voters who are also sick of rising crime but intrigued by his campaign.”
RFK’s VP choice, Nicole Shanahan, is a six-figure donor to… George Gascon, the pro-crime, Soros-backed prosecutor who helped wreck San Francisco and is currently wrecking LA. She also spent big on Measure J, a Los Angeles measure to reroute spending from law enforcement and… pic.twitter.com/ei3p1sggA0
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) March 26, 2024
Dinesh D’Souza reacted to the news, saying, “RFK Jr’s selection of Nicole Shanahan as his VP is a very positive development, in my opinion. It makes it far more likely RFK Jr will now take votes away from Biden than he will from Trump. Had RFK Jr made a more conservative choice, he might have taken votes away from Trump.”
RFK Jr’s selection of Nicole Shanahan as his VP is a very positive development, in my opinion. It makes it far more likely RFK Jr will now take votes away from Biden than he will from Trump. Had RFK Jr made a more conservative choice, he might have taken votes away from Trump
— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) March 26, 2024
Fox News host Jesse Watters suspects Kennedy needed Shanahan’s financial support to get on the ballots as an independent.
“And one of the reasons he tapped Shanahan is because she has deep pockets, who can self-fund and help get him access. A lot of people that I know, who like RFK, weren’t thrilled with the choice. They were expecting someone a little bit more electrifying to kind of jolt that ticket and continue the momentum. There is a lot we don’t know about her,” Watters said.
Watters added: “But she has a lot of money, and you need a lot of money if you’re running a third party. If you look at the polls…Joe is losing to Trump head-to-head in every battleground still. If you introduce RFK, he pulls from both, but he pulls more from Biden. Right now, he’s polling in double digits in Arizona, Nevada, and Wisconsin, and basically at 8 percent or 9 percent in the rest of the swing states. If he gets on ballots and continues to get more face time, he is going to be in double digits in all of the major battlegrounds, and Biden will lose this election if he performs like these numbers say.”
According to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey, Republicans are more excited about Trump returning to the White House than Democrats are about President Biden serving another four years in office.
The survey found that 54% of Republicans surveyed said that they would be “excited” about a second term of a Trump presidency.
When it came to Biden winning the rematch between the incumbent White House president and his predecessor in November’s presidential election, just four out of ten Democrats expressed the same sentiment.
According to the poll, seven out of ten Democrats said they would feel “angry” or “fearful” if Trump were to win the presidency.
If Biden were to defeat Trump for the second time in a row, 56% of Republicans expressed the same sentiment.
Both enthusiasm for and distaste for the two front-runners in a race that polls predict will be very close will probably be important catalysts for igniting the Republican and Democratic bases.
With less than seven months until Election Day on November 5, Trump has an early advantage in public opinion surveys, which he holds in the majority of national surveys as well as in numerous polls in five of the six crucial battleground states where Biden defeated Trump by a narrow margin to win the 2020 presidential election.