Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raised $8.7 million in the third quarter while he was running for the Democratic nomination for president, drawing support from Hollywood and prominent donors to Donald Trump.
Kennedy, who declared an independent run for the White House on Monday, spent $7.1 million and ended September with $6.2 million cash on hand, according to his latest filing with the Federal Election Commission. His third-quarter haul is far less than the $45.5 million that Trump, the GOP frontrunner, said he raised. President Joe Biden has yet to announce his third-quarter totals.
Investor Timothy Mellon, who’d previously donated $5 million to a super political action committee that’s backing Kennedy, and Uline Inc. co-founder Elizabeth Uihlein each gave $3,300. Both ranked among the top Republican donors in the 2022 elections, according to OpenSecrets. Uihlein and her husband, Richard Uihlein, donated $3.3 million to a super PAC that supported Trump in the 2020 election.
Oliver Stone, who directed the 1991 political thriller JFK, gave $6,600, the maximum amount. Paul Buchheit, the Google employee who created Gmail, gave $3,300.
Earlier: Kennedy Leaves Democrats to Run Against Biden as Independent
Kennedy’s announcement of an independent run produced a windfall for his allied super PAC. American Values 2024 PAC said had it raised $11.3 million after Kennedy, an environmental activist and vaccine skeptic, renounced the Democratic Party in which his family has played a prominent role for generations.
He’ll need the money. As an independent, he needs the resources to circulate petitions to get on the ballot in enough states to mount a credible campaign in November.
On Friday, the campaign announced that Kennedy’s daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Kennedy, would replace Dennis Kucinich, a former Democratic congressman and mayor of Cleveland, as campaign manager. She had been serving as co-campaign manager.
