CNN Reports:

In a normal presidential election year, an anti-system third-party candidate like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would not be polling at nearly 10% at this point in the cycle. But this is not a normal year.

This is an election year ripe for an anti-establishment candidate to create significant uncertainty — and potentially stir some even bigger changes to the US party system. With the announcement of his running mate, Silicon Valley attorney and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s campaign will expand its ballot access.

Assuming President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump officially receive the party nominations they have now clinched, the stage is set for a general election that could have the lowest combined approval rating for major party candidates ever (or at least in the history of polling).

Both Biden and Trump have approval ratings stuck in the 40s, where they have been for years. It has echoes of 2016 when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Trump broke records for the highest unfavorability ratings of any two candidates on Election Day.

On the surface, this double dislike seems puzzling: Shouldn’t one of the two parties have figured out how to elevate a more popular general election candidate? Perhaps. But something else is weird about this moment. In a December 2023 Gallup poll, not a single top US government official tested had a job approval rating over 50% — and Kennedy bucks this trend. Kennedy is the only presidential candidate with a net favorable rating.

Read the full opinion piece here.

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