RFK Jr. is activating a whole new kind of political donor

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s independent presidential bid is largely powered by a wave of new donors who aren't political — or at least haven't been in years.

Kennedy's deep ties with anti-vaccine and environmental activism coupled with his campaign’s dedication to new media is engaging people like Michelle Frank, a yoga studio owner who is not registered to vote but has already chipped a few hundred dollars to Kennedy’s campaign.

“I haven't voted in about over 15 to 20 years, actually,” Frank told POLITICO.

After hearing Kennedy on a podcast, Frank hosted an aerial yoga class for local Kennedy supporters at her studio outside of Austin, Texas, attracting a small group of fellow political neophytes. She said one attendee came to the event because of the Super Bowl ad, paid for by the super PAC American Values 2024, that aired the week before.

“Knowing that he has this great, this most pure intention like his uncle and his dad did. I feel like the purity and the intention is really what drew me to him,” she said.

Irregular and first-time voters can help decide elections. They helped propel Trump to victory in 2016. And interviews with some of Kennedy's recent backers reveal an electorate that's both newly engaged with politics and turned off by a rematch between President Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Roughly 21,000 donors have given Kennedy’s campaign at least $200 since he declared his independent run in October, and a POLITICO analysis found that 74 percent of them did not make any political donations during the 2020 cycle. And interviews with numerous Kennedy backers reveal it’s made up of a powerful bloc of people not only drawn to Kennedy but turned off by the general election matchup.

“I’m just anti-Trump. I’m feeling sorry for Biden. And Bobby’s speaking on the topics that I like,” said Daniel Thropp, who is retired and didn’t vote in the 2020 presidential election. A former registered Republican, Thropp said only Kennedy is talking about fighting “Big Pharma” and corruption in federal regulatory agencies.

Thropp has never contributed to a federal candidate before, but last year he wrote a six-figure check for American Values 2024, the super PAC supporting Kennedy's presidential bid. He also gave the maximum legal limit to Kennedy’s campaign.

Kennedy's presidential bid is drawing a level of financial support that is unprecedented for an independent candidate, raising nearly $28 million as of the end of last month.

Kennedy, who has a certain degree of celebrity in his own right, is also engaging well-known figures he’s met during his years of activism and fame.

“[I] wouldn’t have even considered it before, wouldn’t have let my name be lent to anybody,” former NBA player John Stockton said of his vocal support and donations to Kennedy.

Stockton, a star point guard in the heyday of 1990s professional basketball, has signed on to be a surrogate for American Values PAC — though he admits electoral politics is unfamiliar to him.

“I mentioned I’m new to this,” Stockton said. He’s donated to the campaign but not to American Values 2024. “Frankly, I'd like to see all campaigns be less expensive. It seems ridiculous to spend tens and hundreds of millions of dollars to get elected. I know that's probably the process and probably how this one's gonna have to go but I don't understand how PACs work that well just yet.”

Stockton said he started doing his own vaccine research after striking up a friendship with the chiropractor on staff for the Utah Jazz and supports Kennedy because medical freedom is a “huge” issue for him.

“He claims to be not anti-vax, where I think I’m unabashedly anti-vax,” he said.

Kennedy's hero status in the medical freedom movement powered early support for his campaign. Though the movement is ideologically mixed, many of the supporters who have engaged with this issue since the Covid-19 pandemic lean Republican.

Ken Ruettgers, a former NFL player who is also a surrogate for Kennedy, said it was easy for him to align with more “conservative values.” A lifelong voter who backed Ronald Reagan, Ruettgers is also new to political giving. In the 2022 midterms, he donated nearly $20,000 to the campaign and super PAC supporting Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who has held multiple press conferences on injuries allegedly caused by the covid-19 vaccines.

“Ron Johnson's campaign, I think, was the first big contribution, really intentional contribution politically [that] I’ve given, and then this year to Kennedy,” he said.

For Ruettgers, backing Kennedy is also about ending division. A similar sentiment was shared by first-time donor Paolo di Benedetti, of Texas, who voted for Trump in 2020 but has since soured on him.

“I [feel] sick of the high jinks, the ridiculousness of it all: between Trump just being an insulting, divisive force, and Biden, in my opinion, being just kind of clueless,” di Benedetti said.

He viewed Trump as a better alternative to Biden in 2020, but this year he plans to keep donating and volunteering to help Kennedy — his first such engagement with a political campaign.

Frank, the yoga studio owner, was also turned off by Trump. As a Hispanic woman, she started experiencing racism and divisiveness toward her and her family during his first term, she said.

She plans to attend future Kennedy campaign stops in Texas and will continue volunteering her time and studio for events.

"I feel like a lot of people are coming out of the woodwork that would normally not participate in any of these things, such as myself,” Frank said. “And I feel like, you know, us doing it together makes it even more of a powerful thing.”

Jessica Piper contributed to this reporting.