Kucinich Out as Robert Kennedy Campaign Manager

WASHINGTON — In a move that evidently took some campaign insiders by surprise, former Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich is out as campaign manager for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and will be replaced by Kennedy’s daughter-in-law.

The announcement of the campaign shake-up came Friday night, just five days after Kucinich joined Kennedy in Philadelphia, where the candidate announced he was ending his Democratic primary challenge to President Joe Biden but would continue to run as an independent candidate.

While everyone on the Kennedy team was smiling broadly during the event outside the National Constitution Center, something evidently changed in the intervening days.

In a written statement released early Friday evening, Kennedy said, “The campaign benefited enormously from the political experience of Dennis Kucinich. 

“Dennis Kucinich has been a moral center in American politics for more than five decades. This campaign would never have experienced tremendous success during the past six months except for the leadership, wisdom, and experience he brought,” the candidate said, adding, “We will continue to profit from his advice and judgment as we go forward.”

Kennedy then announced that Kucinich was “handing off the baton to the team he did so much to cultivate,” revealing in the process that the campaign would now be led by Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, a political newcomer who is married to Kennedy’s son, Robert F. Kennedy III.

Fox Kennedy holds a law degree from Oxford University and a master’s degree in International Security from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

According to a story about her then-impending marriage into the dynastic Kennedy clan that appeared in Town and Country magazine, Fox Kennedy developed an algorithm while at Georgetown that helped predict terrorist activity. 

The CIA’s officer-in-residence asked her to share the algorithm with the agency, which went on to hire her first as a political and terrorism analyst and then as a clandestine service officer.

After leaving that role in 2009, Fox Kennedy started Mulu, an e-commerce company supporting at-risk communities worldwide. 

She was later recruited by Twitter to run the company’s consumer products e-commerce division. 

Since leaving Twitter in December 2015 she has written two books and produced and presented the Netflix documentary “Business of Drugs,” detailing the militarism and corruption enmeshed in America’s war on drugs. 

“Over the last year, Amaryllis has launched and managed many of the campaign’s front-facing initiatives, working closely with Kennedy, Kucinich, campaign leadership, national staff and volunteers,” the Kennedy campaign said.

Her father-in-law described her in his statement as “a woman of extraordinary intelligence and drive who I am confident will take this campaign to the next level.”

“I am thrilled to lead this historic people-powered movement to reclaim the American dream on behalf of all our citizens,” Fox Kennedy said in the same announcement.

Kucinich was not quoted in the release, and he has declined to talk to reporters since his departure was announced.

However, in a memo to the campaign staff earlier in the day, Kucinich said the time had come to take the campaign in a “new direction.”

“I urge each of you to hold fast,” he said.

Last August, during an interview with The Well News in Charleston, South Carolina, Kucinich was asked what advice he had given Kennedy about the nature of campaigning, given his own experience as a two-time presidential candidate.

“Me?” he smiled. “Listen, Mr. Kennedy is a natural. I mean, would you have to teach Hank Aaron how to hit a baseball?

“This man understands government … and he’s great with people. You watch how people listen so carefully when he’s speaking.

“No, I don’t presume I have anything I can impart to him,” he said.

Kucinich was about to walk away, but caught himself and turned to make a final point.

“I truly believe this campaign, this candidate … has the broadest appeal of any candidate currently running for president,” he said.

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