It’s been a while since Americans have had an Independent candidate in the presidential race. That’s usually because Independents either don’t feel they can win, or fear that they will siphon too much support from one of the other candidates they dislike less.

But one such player is in the game this time, and he’s got a pretty famous name: Robert F. Kennedy, Junior.

RFK Jr. is the son of JFK’s brother, Bobby Kennedy. Bobby was JFK’s Attorney General and later a Senator, while his son has not held political office. But they did — before Bobby’s assassination — share some traits.

RFK was appointed by the infamous Joseph McCarthy to the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. That was the hunt for communists and homosexuals that made McCarthy famous. But RFK didn’t stay long, and soon he was counsel for the Democrats in the Senate.

RFK Jr. cut his teeth on analysis and commentary, mostly. He was a regular on the short-lived Air America radio network, which was to be the left’s answer to Rush Limbaugh-type AM radio garbage that attracted loons and angry white men.

Then RFK Jr. seemed to switch sides as well, like his dad. But in reverse. He has, since the dissolution of Air America, become somewhat of a conspiracy theorist, especially in the field of medicine and vaccines.

But for all the disastrous news of Trump polling better than Biden in some swing states despite his legal woes, RFK Jr’s presence in the race could mark a turning point for President Biden. A new poll by NPR shows the younger Kennedy getting around 16 percent of the vote — with a sizable chunk of it coming from would-be Trump voters.

It seems as though Democrats have seen RFK Jr’s swing to the right for what it is.

The poll shows Biden dropping by five points with RFK Jr. in the race; it shows Trump dropping by 10 percent in the three-way matchup. That’s far more of a swing than we’ve seen from previous Independent or 3rd-party candidates like Ross Perot, Lyndon LaRouche, Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, or Ralph Nader.

Lee Miringoff, the director of the study, said “Although it’s always tricky to assess the impact of a third-party candidate, right now Kennedy alters the equation in Biden’s favor. What this does speak to, however, is that about one in six voters are looking for another option, especially independents.”

This could be a game-changer — and in a good way.