A campaign event on Saturday intended to galvanize support among Latino voters and organized labor behind Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential bid instead drew condemnation from the family of the labor organizer Cesar Chavez, who accused Mr. Kennedy of exploiting the Chavez name for political gain.
Mr. Kennedy’s campaign held a “celebration” of Chavez in Los Angeles ahead of March 31, Chavez’s birthday, which is recognized as an official holiday in California. The Kennedy family has a decades-long history of friendship and political partnership with the Chavez family, dating to Mr. Kennedy’s father, Robert F. Kennedy.
But in a letter Friday addressed to the campaign, Chavez’s eldest son, Fernando Chavez, writing on behalf of the Chavez family, asked Mr. Kennedy to stop referring to his father or using images of him, and threatened legal action.
“It causes us great pain to see your campaign repeatedly using our father’s images along with related documentary film and photographs of him to suggest the alignment of your campaign with the values of Cesar Chavez,” the letter said. “It is our sincere conviction that this association is untrue and deceptive.”
In a statement Saturday, Mr. Kennedy said the event was intended “to honor Cesar Chavez and his close friendship with my father, my family and me, and his impact on our country.” In an interview Sunday, he said he had repeatedly reached out to members of the family in the weeks before the event, but heard nothing until reporters called on Friday about the letter, which he said the campaign never actually received. (The letter was emailed on Friday to the campaign’s press office address, a family spokesman said.)
“Of course, if they had asked me, we would have done something else, very, very easily,” Mr. Kennedy said. “If people in the family had wanted us to cancel the event, it would have been quite easy for them to pick up the phone.”
Mr. Kennedy’s father formed a bond with Chavez in the mid-1960s, when he was a senator, and became the first national political figure to embrace Chavez and the farm labor movement he was working to build. In March 1968, Robert F. Kennedy famously sat with Chavez as he ended a 25-day fast he undertook to make penance, he said, for the violent rhetoric of some strikers.
In 1980, when Mr. Kennedy’s uncle, Ted Kennedy, was seeking the Democratic nomination for president, Chavez and his family — including Fernando Chavez — worked with the Kennedy family, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on Latino voter mobilization, Fernando Chavez and the younger Mr. Kennedy both recalled.
At Cesar Chavez’s 1993 funeral, the younger Mr. Kennedy was among the people who took turns carrying the coffin. The Chavez family letter expressed gratitude for those pallbearers, but noted that while other elected officials and future political candidates had been among them, “To our knowledge, none of them have featured images carrying the casket in their political campaign materials and promotions. We take offense at the use of such sacred moments purely for political purposes.”
In an interview Sunday, Fernando Chavez said writing the letter was “a very difficult decision, in light of the Kennedy family’s support over the last 45 years, and knowing and working with him personally.”
He said the family’s decision to distance themselves from Mr. Kennedy stemmed from two matters: a belief that Mr. Kennedy’s candidacy could draw enough votes from President Biden to hand the election to former President Donald J. Trump — a common concern among Democratic Party leadership . Additionally, the family takes issue with Mr. Kennedy’s outspoken skepticism about the Covid vaccine, in contrast to the Biden administration’s focus on pushing for vaccinations for union and farm workers. “A lot of people lost their lives because of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories,” Mr. Chavez said.
Mr. Chavez said that he had spoken with some of Mr. Kennedy’s relatives before sending the letter on Friday and that they supported his decision. Several members of the Kennedy family have publicly repudiated Mr. Kennedy’s presidential bid.
Two weeks ago, on Saint Patrick’s Day, members of the Kennedy family posted pictures of the extended clan gathered at the White House with Mr. Biden. Several relatives have previously released statements calling his candidacy dangerous. A Super Bowl ad by a super PAC supporting him, which repurposed a 1960 presidential ad for Mr. Kennedy’s uncle, John F. Kennedy, also drew ire from the family.
On Sunday, Mr. Kennedy blamed the conflict with the Chavez family on the Democratic Party leadership. “I think it’s unfortunate that the White House and the DNC feel that they have to divide family and friends and cause these kinds of wounds.”
The Chavez family has endorsed Mr. Biden’s re-election and his campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, is one of Chavez’s granddaughters. Mr. Biden has a bust of Chavez in his office. On Friday, the White House marked Cesar Chavez Day with a proclamation affirming support for unions and farm workers.
In remarks at Saturday’s event, held at the old ticket concourse at Los Angeles’s Union Station, Mr. Kennedy described Chavez’s connection to his family, and how his work as an environmental lawyer drew him into contact with Chavez, particularly on the matters of pesticides and the southern border. In his speech, Mr. Kennedy called for tighter border controls and a temporary migrant worker visa program.
“We need to change the system, and right now I’m the only candidate who’s doing it,” Mr. Kennedy told the crowd.
Gautham Nagesh contributed reporting.
