WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a scion of one of America’s foremost political dynasties who has emerged as a prominent anti-vaccine activist in recent years, will challenge Joe Biden for president in 2024.
Kennedy, 69, filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday, listing a Los Angeles address and a Democratic Party affiliation. He had been running a low-profile exploratory committee and spoke in the early-primary state of New Hampshire last month.
He is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, the former U.S. attorney general and New York senator who was assassinated in 1968 during his own campaign for president.
Kennedy, who also is a nephew of President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Ted Kennedy, would face an uphill battle challenging an incumbent president from his own party, but would join self-help author Marianne Williamson in opposing Biden in the Democratic primaries.
Kennedy has espoused conspiracy theories about the dangers of vaccines, which began with debunked studies linking early childhood vaccinations to autism but became more prominent in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. A video of his speech at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire last month was removed from YouTube for violating the platform’s rules against medical misinformation.
At an anti-vaccine rally last year, he said that Anne Frank, who died in the Holocaust, was more fortunate than workers subject to vaccine mandates — a remark condemned even by his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, best known for HBO’s "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Kennedy apologized in a tweet. “To the extent my remarks caused hurt, I am truly and deeply sorry,” he wrote.
He practices law and has served in various roles for environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, Hudson Riverkeeper and Waterkeeper Alliance.
