GLENDALE, Ariz, Sept 16, (AP): Three weeks after dropping his independent presidential campaign, Robert F. Kennedy Jr has become a ubiquitous campaigner for Donald Trump, urging his own loyal followers to cast their lot with the former president who said he'd give Kennedy a job if he returns to the White House.

Kennedy is hitting the road with Tulsi Gabbard, a former congresswoman who's built her own following on the right. Many of the people who turned out to see them in suburban Phoenix on Saturday night were already committed Trump supporters. A few, like Jacob Cutler, wore clothing from Kennedy's defunct campaign.

An enthusiastic Kennedy supporter, Cutler has embraced Trump as the best person to stop Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate. "I was concerned about what would happen if she won, and so that’s why I felt like I needed to support Donald Trump and help him win,” said Cutler, a 40-year-old who said he voted for Democratic President Joe Biden four years ago. "If anything, the lesser of two evils.”

The Kennedy-Trump alliance gives the Republican former president an endorsement from the well-known scion of a Democratic dynasty and the chance to present his campaign as having bipartisan appeal. Even a small number of Democrats moving to Trump's side due to Kennedy's endorsement could be critical in states like Arizona, which Biden won in 2020 by fewer than 11,000 votes.

Trump’s path back to the White House relies in part on voters who don’t trust institutions like government, corporations and the mainstream media, a group that can be hard to reach, win over and motivate to vote. Kennedy and Gabbard have pull with those voters, who tend to get news and information from podcasts and YouTube videos.

Both Trump and Kennedy have vowed in recent weeks to "make America healthy again,” a play on Trump's signature "Make America Great Again” slogan that references Kennedy's frequent arguments during his campaign that chronic illnesses have become more prevalent among Americans and his boosting of discredited theories about vaccines. At the Trump campaign event on Saturday, Kennedy addressed the members of his family who have criticized his embrace of Trump.