RFK Jr. Raised $8.7 Million With Help of Hollywood, GOP Donors

(Bloomberg) -- 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.

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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.

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