But in 2022, Democrats put their thumb on the scale to get far-right candidates nominated in various primaries by contributing $50 million to nine of them. The reason was simple. While most of these primary candidates could have been elected in red states, their far-right views fell flat in the blue and purple states in which they ran.
But the significance of that $50 million is that they were able to defeat far better GOP candidates who would have had a much better chance of prevailing in the general election.
The Republican Super PACs supporting Kennedy aren’t necessarily trying to replace Joe Biden with Robert Kennedy. But supporting a thorn in Biden’s side until the convention (and perhaps beyond), forcing Biden to spend money when he may have preferred coasting all the way to the general election, is good politics.
What the Democrats tried in 2022 was hypocritical and, considering that the GOP candidates they were supporting held views contrary to the majority of the electorate, knowingly undemocratic. Many in their own party disagreed with the tactic.
Critics complain these investments undercut the party’s vow to be guardians of democracy. Worse yet, they say, in a difficult political climate for Democrats, they fear it might lead to electing the very candidates they perceive to present the biggest threats to the country.
This is a deeply, deeply precarious and dangerous strategy to deploy,” said former Indiana congressman Tim Roemer, who organized a letter of former Democratic lawmakers criticizing their own party for using the tactic. “It risks elevating these liars and giving them a platform for another three or four months — even if they end up getting beat — to drumbeat their message into the electorate and further erode trust.”
Timothy Mellon, a Wyoming Republican who contributed $53 million in stock to a Texas project paying for construction of Trump’s new border wall, is one of RFK’s backers.
“The fact that Kennedy gets so much bipartisan support tells me two things,” Mr. Mellon, previously a top donor to former President Donald J. Trump, said in a statement issued by American Values 2024. “That he’s the one candidate who can unite the country and root out corruption, and that he’s the one Democrat who can win the general election.”
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In 2022, six of the far-right GOP candidates won in the primaries, including retired general Dan Balduc in New Hampshire who ran a strong race but who never had much of a chance against the most vulnerable Senate Democrat, Margie Hasan. Balduc displaced the Republican leader of the state senate who would have offered a far stronger challenge to Hassan.
Some of these candidates — like Darren Bailey, who received about $25 million from Democratic Super PAC and roughly $9.5 million from the eventual winner, J.B. Pritzker’s campaign — never had a chance. Bailey was blown out by double digits in the general election.
In the case of Robert Kennedy, Democrats are caterwauling about nothing.
The support from Republicans is likely to heighten suspicions about Mr. Kennedy’s candidacy among Democrats who see him as a pawn in an effort to undermine President Biden. Dozens of venture capitalists, tech executives, real-estate builders and investors with varying political alliances also contributed to the Kennedy-aligned PACs.
In the case of Democrats contributing to sure-loser GOP candidates in 2022, this was a deliberate strategy to undermine the Republican Party. But the RFK supporters actually believe in his cause, if not his chances for victory.