Kennedy on campaign

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is known mainly for his ­criticism of vaccines, but the nephew of President John F. Kennedy has recently gained ­notoriety for a different reason: His bid for the presidency has amassed a surprising amount of traction, breaking double-digit support in polls.

Kennedy is running as a Democrat against President Joe Biden. His platform emphasizes government transparency, the environment, and free speech. He’s said he would cut military spending and invest in domestic development. “My mission,” he said at his campaign announcement event, “will be to end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power.”

He’s also made controversial claims: He postulated that a widely used herbicide, atrazine, could explain gender dysphoria in Americans based on a 2010 study of the chemical’s effect on frogs. (Other research indicates atrazine is of low toxicity to humans.)

Still, Kennedy’s campaign has drawn early support from Democrats—and increased name recognition across both parties. In June, the Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll found that Kennedy had a 45 percent favorability rating, placing him alongside former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. A May CNN/SSRS poll found that 20 percent of Democratic-leaning respondents supported Kennedy for the 2024 presidential nomination.

Nevertheless, Kennedy remains a long shot for the White House. An elected president has not lost his party’s nomination since Democrats stripped Franklin Pierce of his White House bid in 1856.

Targeting executive bank profits

Several U.S. senators have introduced legislation aimed at stiffening repercussions for leaders of failing banks. The measures—one led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and another backed by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Tim Scott, R-S.C.—would empower the FDIC to seize profits made by executives in the form of salaries, bonuses, and other forms of compensation.

The penalties laid out in Warren’s bill would seize these individuals’ profits made five years prior to a bank’s failure. The bill ­introduced by Brown and Scott suggests a two-year window.

The proposals come after the failure of three major banks earlier this year that were collectively worth $532 billion—Silicon Valley Bank, First Republic Bank, and Signature Bank. Supporters of the bills say that by raising the stakes for a failure, they would incentivize bank executives to make more careful ­decisions. —L.B.