BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Despite dropping out of the presidential race nearly three months before Election Day, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received more votes in Alabama than any other third-party candidate combined, according to the Alabama Secretary of State's Office.
Kennedy, who adamantly told people not to vote for him after withdrawing from the race and endorsing Donald Trump over the summer, received 12,026 votes in Alabama, or 0.53% of the nearly 2.3 million votes cast across the state last Tuesday, according to unofficial results released by the SOS. This marks more votes than the total combined number of ballots cast for Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver statewide. Stein, a doctor who has ran for president under the Green Party ticket in the 2012 and 2016 elections, received 4,2917 votes (0.19%) across Alabama. Oliver, who had unsuccessfully ran for House and Senate seats in Georgia before running for president as a Libertarian, received 4,914 votes (0.22%).
However, more Alabamians cast write-in ballots than voted for third-party candidates not named Kennedy, with 8,720 votes written in, marking 0.39% of the vote in the state.
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and activist who first ran as a Democrat challenging President Joe Biden before going it alone as an independent under no third-party banner, dropped out of the presidential race on Aug. 23, subsequently giving his support to President-elect Trump. The day Kennedy withdrew from the race was the same day of Alabama's deadline for ballot access.
Kennedy would go on to receive nearly 594,000 votes nationwide on Election Day, or roughly 0.4% of the popular vote, according to NewsNation.
Following Trump's win, there has been speculation that Kennedy, whose controversial views on vaccines have garnered both support and outrage, could potentially be nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, according to CBS News. Neither Trump or his campaign team have commented on the report.
Former Gov. George Wallace remains the only third-party presidential candidate in history to win the popular vote in Alabama, receiving 691,425 votes (65.86%) when he ran under the American Independent Party ticket in 1968, beating out both Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey. The only other third-party candidate to receive more than 10% of the vote in Alabama was Texas businessman Ross Perot, who received 183,109 votes (10.85%) across the state in 1992.
For more information on how Alabama voted in the 2024 election, click here.