Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hammers two-party system in Knoxville campaign stop

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has declared his independence, and he's taking his message through Tennessee.

The presidential candidate took aim at the U.S. government in his Oct. 15 appearance in front of approximately 200 people at the Relix Venue, saying the country's leadership is betraying Americans' freedom.

"Democracy has become sort of a film set," he said. "We have all these little things that tell us we're a democracy, elections and things. But none of us really feel like we have any impact about what the government does."

The 69-year-old announced a run for the Democratic primary nomination in April, then said Oct. 9 that he was "declaring his own independence" from the country's two-party system.

Kennedy's candidacy as an independent raises a threat for both the Democratic and Republican parties: he could earn the votes of those fed up with President Joe Biden and GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.

Campaigning as an independent in Tennessee will be an uphill battle for Kennedy. In 2020, Libertarian nominee Jo Jorgensen received only 1% of the state's vote, and third-party candidates Don Blakenship, Howie Hawkins and Kanye West received even less.

Voter Allen Odham said he’s supporting Kennedy because of his message.

“I’d kind of like to see the dysfunction that we have in Washington end, and I think an (outsider) can do that,” he said. “The politicians entrenched in the two-party system can’t really do that.”

Bill Lyons, director of policy partnerships at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville's Baker Center for Public Policy, said Kennedy likely knows he won't make a dent in the electoral outcome in Tennessee.

Instead, Lyons predicted Kennedy is visiting the Volunteer State to get the word out about the issues he's passionate about.

During his hourlong speech, he touted what he said were the anti-interventionist foreign policy instincts of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and shared his experience as a lawyer fighting against federal agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission and Food and Drug Administration.

"I ran because I feel like I'm uniquely situated to fix the biggest issue ... which is the center of everything: the corrupt merger of state and corporate power," he said. "The place that we see that is in the agencies that are captured by the industries they're supposed to regulate."

Kennedy is seeking something else out of Tennessee: signatures to get on the ballot. Independents need at least 25 signatures for each of Tennessee's electors to appear on the November ballot, according to state law. That totals 275 signatures.

Kennedy has been a vociferous critic of pandemic mitigation efforts, including rejecting the science behind vaccinations for COVID-19. He also promulgates the debunked theory that routine childhood vaccinations cause autism.

Kennedy's candidacy has been a concern for Democrats. In September Matt Bennett, cofounder of the centrist Democratic group Third Way, told the New York Times he was concerned about Kennedy's flirtation with the Libertarian Party.

"We’ve been very clear that third parties in close elections can be very dangerous and would almost certainly hurt the president. That would be true of a No Labels candidate and it would be true of R.F.K,” Bennett said.

Kennedy is running as an independent rather than a Libertarian, but the same risk applies.

Kennedy's campaign website describes him as a "Kennedy American," touting his place in one of the Democratic Party's most influential families. But his family wasn't supportive of his Democratic primary aspirations, according to Politico reporting.

"With Bobby no longer running in the Democratic Party, that’s taken a lot of pressure off of us,” Chris Kennedy, the candidate's brother, said. “We love our brother. We love our party. And we love our president. Ultimately, it’s better that he’s running as an independent and can impact President Trump.”

That's not to say they're thrilled with his independent run, either. The same day he announced his plan, four of Kennedy's siblings, not including Chris, put a joint statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, criticizing their brother's campaign.

"The decision of our brother Bobby to run as a third party candidate against Joe Biden is dangerous to our country," they wrote. "Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgement. Today's announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country."

Kennedy's Knoxville stop was part of an "Independence Tour" that will take him to Nashville, as well as Arizona, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin. He's already visited Florida and Texas on the tour.

Allie Feinberg reports on politics for Knox News. Email her: allie.feinberg@knoxnews.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @allie.feinberg.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hammers two-party system in Knoxville stop