Biden Challenger RFK Jr. Aligns With GOP on Key Culture War Issue

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems to be on the same page with some Republicans and conservatives who don't think that transgender people should participate in women's sports.

"I am against people participating in women's sports who are biologically male. I think women have worked too hard to develop women's sports over the past 30 years...and I don't think that's fair," Kennedy Jr. told CNN host Michael Smerconish on Saturday.

The nephew of former President John F. Kennedy is challenging President Joe Biden, who officially announced his 2024 reelection bid on Tuesday, for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Transgender rights have been heavily targeted by conservatives and Republicans over the past few months, with over 385 anti-trans bills being introduced in the United States this year alone. Restrictions on transgender athletes participating in women's sports have been imposed now in 20 states. Most recently, Kansas lawmakers voted to override Democratic Governor Laura Kelly's third veto of a bill that bans transgender athletes from participating in women's and girl's sports from kindergarten through college.

Debate around allowing transgender athletes to participate in women's sports have soared in recent years, with conservatives saying that transgender women competing in all-female leagues have an unfair advantage over biological girls and women. Idaho was the first state to enact restrictions on transgender athletes in March 2020, but a pause on the bill has been placed since August 2020 following a lawsuit that argues it's discriminatory against transgender women and girls.

Some conservatives and Republicans have also been vocal over the past few years about other issues they oppose, including COVID-19 related restrictions and vaccine mandates, which Kennedy Jr. is also against.

Kennedy Jr., the son of former U.S. attorney general and assassinated 1968 presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, has been well-known for being outspoken against COVID-19 restrictions and opposed the vaccine. He released a book in 2021 titled, The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health, in which he wrote that the country's top infectious disease doctor is assisting in a "historic coup d'état against Western democracy," and touted unfounded COVID-19 treatments such as ivermectin, which is meant to treat parasites, according to the Associated Press.

He announced his 2024 presidential bid last week and launched his campaign from Boston where he spoke about his father's 1968 campaign, his criticism of the pharmaceutical industry, and his career as an environmental lawyer.

Earlier this month, a poll by USA Today/Suffolk University showed that 14 percent of Biden's 2020 supporters said they would vote for Kennedy Jr., while 67 percent of those voters said they would choose Biden again. However, David Paleologos, the director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said that the survey indicates Democratic voters would consider another candidate.

"In 2020, Joe Biden received more votes than any other president in U.S. history, yet the poll tells us that those same voters are open to other Democrats to wage a spirited primary," Paleologos told USA Today. "Kennedy, although a long shot at this point, starts in double digits and can't be ignored."

Also in the poll, Kennedy Jr. was favorable among 33 percent of Biden supporters who disapprove of Biden's job in the White House and the 35 percent who described the president's policies as "too liberal."

Newsweek reached out to the National Center for Transgender Equality for comment.