“The Campaign is a Mess”: RFK Jr. Hit with Staff Exodus Over Lavish Spending and Amateurish Leadership

Written by Diana Falzone
Feb 13th, 2024, 4:33 pm

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign is in disarray amid an exodus of campaign workers who say disorganization, lavish spending, amateurish leadership, and a severe disconnect between the campaign and the candidate’s values have led the long-shot bid for the presidency astray.

Fourteen members of Kennedy24 have resigned since the start of the year, including 12 field staff and two main staff, according to multiple sources who spoke with Mediaite on the condition of anonymity. One source close to the campaign pinned the turmoil on two leaders: Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, campaign manager and Kennedy’s daughter-in-law, and Del Bigtree, an anti-vaccine activist who serves as the campaign’s communications director.

The source described Fox Kennedy and Bigtree as “self-serving” operatives who were “making decisions based on their own personal advancement opportunities, and not acting in the best interest of the candidate.”

A major point of contention within the campaign has been the eye-watering payouts to campaign leadership revealed in FEC reports.

Bigtree’s firm KFP Consulting was paid $35,000 in December; it has made $90,000 off the campaign in total so far. Starlight Saint, the LLC registered to campaign COO Matthew Sanders, makes $21,000 a month. More Beautiful World, the LLC registered to campaign adviser Charles Eisenstein, made $21,667 a month in October, November, and December 2023.

“When the reports came out and everyone saw the obscene amount of money some people are making, while they are often paying for their own promotional materials out of pocket and can’t get their gas stipend covered, many people started thinking those people are scamming and skimming to line their pockets,” one campaign worker said. “This is out of alignment with the message of the candidate.”

The source said “lavish” spending of Bigtree and others is also a “point of contention among campaign workers,” recalling one incident when Bigtree joined a Zoom call from a skiing resort.

“Del is running around spending money lavishly,” another source said. “He’s doing Zoom calls from the slopes with champagne while many people are volunteers and not getting paid.”

Fox Kennedy, meanwhile, “hired her nanny” Brigid Rasmussen as chief of staff, which was seen internally as a sign of incompetence for the director of a presidential campaign.

A second campaign worker also griped about the hiring of Fox Kennedy’s nanny as the campaign’s chief of staff. “Although Brigid is a nice young woman, she has no idea how to operate in her role and is inexperienced. This is merely one red flag that indicates incompetence,” they said.

“The campaign is not run like a business,” one source said. “There is no professional environment. It feels like a Spring Break party cruise. Del has been heard on multiple occasions saying, ‘We are like rock stars, and this is like being on tour with a rock band.’”

Fox Kennedy responded to this story in a statement: “With over a hundred staff members and tens of thousands of volunteers nationwide, Team Kennedy has great folks come and go depending on the needs of each phase of the campaign. As the most successful independent campaign of the last three decades, we wish them nothing but the best. NBC’s latest poll has RFK at 34% with nine months still ahead, and we are laser focused on delivering a historic victory for our country this November.”

Fox Kennedy took charge of the campaign in October, replacing Dennis Kucinich, the former Democratic congressman who exited amid concerns over his leadership.

One veteran political strategist who reviewed Mediaite’s reporting about the Kennedy campaign said the bloated consultant fees and small field operation (according to a source there were a total of 25 field staffers in January before the 12 resigned) indicates “this is not a serious campaign,” and Kennedy is “not serious about winning.” Instead, the source said, it suggests “they’re looking to line some pockets of consultants who are most likely looking to milk every penny of this campaign. Volunteers cannot put together a national campaign field operation.”

Mediaite reviewed several resignation letters from campaign workers who quit in the latest exodus. In one Jan. 15 letter from a staffer who has worked for several other campaigns, they addressed their concerns to Kennedy directly. The letter, which described the campaign as “the worst I’ve ever been a part of,” read in part:

After deep reflection, I can no longer continue to serve alongside the leadership of your campaign. While I remain wholly committed to the values and principles you espouse, the day to day management of the campaign has failed to live up to the values of this endeavor.

You’re the best candidate I’ve ever had the privilege of serving, and it pains me to inform you that your campaign operation is – by far – the worst I’ve ever been a part of. You deserve better. Your supporters deserve better.

Things have come to a head, and prayerfully following my heart, I can no longer continue to serve in an organization so rife with such moral and professional turpitude. It brings me no pleasure to share that your campaign leadership is severely mismanaging your bid for the White House. I cannot in good conscience lend my talent, time, and efforts to an organization that is so amateurish, cavalier, and out of touch with the American voter.

Thank you so much for the hard work you’ve put into this race. I look forward to casting my ballot for you, but respectfully refuse to be part of an organization I feel is so misdirected.

Kennedy personally replied to this letter: “I’m so sorry that things have not worked out for you at the campaign. I’m worried about some of the issues that you’ve raised and I will look into them. I hope you will stay in touch with me. I know we are all working for the same vision for our country.”

In another resignation letter sent in early January, a campaign worker outlined a slew of grievances — including investing considerable campaign resources in a large-scale media project being overseen by Bigtree – and some recommendations for how the campaign can improve.

The letter read in part:

We have Del building an outsized media outfit in the campaign hiring 30 staff (WTH!?!?) sucking off precious resources needed in the field to take on this gargantuan task (nothing against Del but that kind of staff for such a poorly capitalized presidential campaign is mind-boggling to me). It bothers me every day that so many in the campaign can’t see the iceberg that is dead ahead called ballot access. Sure, you’re hiring National folks for these efforts, but what about the field where the vast vast majority of the action happens? The logistics for these operations are already complicated (and made even more onerous and costly by the “vault” process) and vary in every state and somehow you expect these things can be worked out by mostly volunteers who will probably be overwhelmed with just the signature gathering. Good luck with that.

–Staffing and funding the field ops like the existential priority they are to the campaign. The field is severely undercapitalized for ballot access while National is overcapitalized relatively speaking with some positions that seem to merely do Zoom calls all day.
–Ending the backslapping culture where everything is “amazing!” and magical for this campaign. This campaign needs REAL TALK about the challenges that are faced.
–Tear down the National vs Field wall.
–End the endless wars Zoom calls which suck up precious time that should be used for actual work and execution of plans. Zoom is a mere tool in the toolbox.

I resign.

p.s. I still think Bobby is the best. I just think he deserves much better than has been currently delivered with the campaign. Hopefully y’all can do that. Best of luck.

Mediaite reported in October that Kennedy planned on leaving the Democratic race to run as an Independent. He now faces an uphill climb to achieve ballot access in all 50 states as a candidate without the backing of an established political party.

“The campaign is a mess because upper management consists of people who are serving their own needs rather than the candidate’s,” one source close to the campaign lamented. “There is no one with any political experience and it shows.”

This story has been updated with a comment from the Kennedy campaign.