Chuck Todd: How to vote for change in a rematch election

Analysis: Don't discount voters' interest in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s third-party candidacy, even if he seems to be trying not to be taken seriously.

What happens when an electorate wants change but there’s no obvious change candidate on the ballot?

This question popped into my head after I watched one of Rich Thau’s fascinating monthly focus groups of Biden-Trump voters, with the latest edition convening Pennsylvania voters who voted once for either President Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton and once for former President Donald Trump.

Thau has been doing these qualitative monthly check-ins with voters across the country ever since the rise of Trump. For the 2020 election cycle, he gathered voters who voted Obama-Trump. Now, he has shifted the voter résumé to the mix of folks above, still focusing on people who have switched their votes election to election. (Thau and his company, Engagious, are also partnering with NBC News on another recurring focus group project gathering key voting groups in battleground states.) You can see some of the archived focus groups at his website. This is one of those projects that become exponentially more impactful with each new monthly addition to the archives, so pay attention!

The headline-grabber for this month’s Pennsylvania check-in was the surprising level of interest in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. among these swing voters. In some ways, this shouldn’t be a surprise. These voters are by definition not hard partisans, and they certainly aren’t pleased with either major party, as they’ve been comfortable voting against both of them over the last two elections.

As I wrote months ago, there was always going to be a moment in this campaign cycle when both major parties had finished their nominating processes and selected Biden and Trump — and yet the public wasn’t satisfied with that outcome. We are at that moment.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/chuck-todd-vote-change-rematch-election-rcna147899

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