Former staffers for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s now-suspended presidential marketing campaign have launched an excellent PAC to persuade Kennedy supporters to again Donald Trump.
About one dozen ex-staffers are behind the Make America Wholesome Once more (MAHA) PAC, Jeff Hutt, a spokesperson for the PAC, advised POLITICO. The group consists of many members of the unbiased marketing campaign’s former area staff, he stated.
When Kennedy dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Trump on the finish of August, he inspired his supporters to nonetheless vote for him if they didn’t stay in a swing state. However on Thursday, Kennedy wrote in a message to his marketing campaign’s e-mail listing, “It doesn’t matter what state you reside in, I urge you to vote for Donald Trump.”
The PAC plans so as to add grassroots assist to Kennedy’s new directive.
“That is what we have to do to get Mr. Kennedy over the end line and to go and do that with the identical vitality that our volunteers and supporters had been utilizing to get Mr. Kennedy within the White Home,” stated Hutt, who was additionally Kennedy’s nationwide area director. “Now they should take that vitality and refocus it into getting Mr. Kennedy a seat on the desk on the White Home with a unity ticket with Donald Trump.”
The PAC plans to deal with voters each in swing states the place Kennedy is unable to get his identify off the poll — authorized challenges are ongoing — and blue states the place it believes it has vital sufficient volunteers and polling assist to assist Trump. Virginia and New Hampshire are prime targets.
The PAC’s president is Jared Volz, who was additionally a nationwide area director with the marketing campaign for many of 2023 by means of the start of this yr.
Hutt stated the PAC is a “labor of affection” devoted to participating voters on the grassroots stage who want convincing to again Trump, however MAHA additionally hopes to boost sufficient cash for a media purchase in key states.
Nicole Shanahan, who was Kennedy’s working mate and principal monetary backer throughout his run, has not been solicited for a donation, he stated.
When Kennedy suspended his marketing campaign, his nationwide polling common was about 5 p.c and declining. However the presidential election is shaping as much as be narrowly divided in swing states, and the flexibility to persuade even a fraction of Kennedy’s supporters to vote for Trump might be decisive.
”As you realize, this might be a really shut election. A disputed election end result could be a catastrophe for our divided nation,” Kennedy wrote. “President Trump must win in a landslide each within the Electoral Faculty and the favored vote. He can’t do it until my supporters be part of him and have a look at the large image.”
Make America Wholesome Once more PAC will file its first monetary disclosure report on Oct. 15.