The super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raised $5.8 million on Monday night, celebrating the independent candidate’s 70th birthday at The London Hotel in West Hollywood, PAC head Tony Lyons shared first with POLITICO.
“I’ve lived seven decades, and I’ve lived all kinds of lives,” Kennedy told the crowd from a dais in a video clip of his speech shared with POLITICO. “I had this extraordinary abundance as a child, and this rich, rich experience being in the center of not just American political life, but [in] Washington, D.C., at the height of Camelot, at a time when everyone in the world was looking to Washington, D.C.”
Kennedy attended the West Hollywood event along with his wife, Cheryl Hines, who starred in Curb Your Enthusiasm; his campaign manager and daughter-in-law Amaryllis Fox Kennedy; and her husband Bobby Kennedy III, as well as other immediate family members.
Comedian Theo Von, mega donor Gavin de Becker, Hines and Kennedy’s children also spoke to the crowd of more than 200 attendees, Lyons said.
This is actually the second birthday gala planned for the candidate. The first attempt — a star-studded birthday gala fundraiser — was widely mocked online after American Values advertised that Dionne Warwick and Martin Sheen would attend. Both said in social media posts that they wouldn’t be there.
Then, the candidate himself said wouldn’t be going to the party through his campaign spokesperson. The event was then canceled.
The first-time candidate polls between 7 and 18 percent in general election match-ups, according to RealClearPolitics. That support is more than enough to shake up the race, which is widely expected to be a Donald Trump-Joe Biden rematch.
Lyons, who is also Kennedy’s publisher, said this was the “most successful” event the PAC has hosted yet.
American Values 2024 will host a second 70th birthday fundraiser this week, according to an invitation shared with POLITICO, in Washington, D.C. — though the PAC is making no promises about celebrity attendees.