No one has experienced an election cycle that is stranger than that of Robert F. Kennedy Junior. He began the election as a longshot contestant for the Democratic primary against Joe Biden, only to drop out and launch an independent campaign. That campaign rose remarkably high, only to suddenly fall once Kamala Harris entered the race.

Then, ten months after the campaign began, it ended. Not with a fizzle, but with a bang, as the scion of the Democratic Kennedy dynasty dropped out and endorsed Donald Trump.

RFK Jr. wasn’t the only one to turn tail. Around the same time, Tulsi Gabbard, an ex-Congresswoman who had run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, also endorsed Donald Trump. Donald Trump accepted both into the fold and added both ex-Democrats onto his official transition team. Now, campaign for him.

Kamala Harris, for her part, has also gotten significant Republican endorsement. Both Former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, ex-Congresswoman Liz Cheney, have endorsed her. Over 100 ex-GOP officials have supported her, and several had speaking roles at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. She has even floated the idea of having a Republican in her cabinet.

Now, rebellious voices from either party are nothing new. In 2008, for instance, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman endorsed Republican John McCain for president. In 2016, Colin Powell, who was Secretary of Defense in the administration of Republican George W. Bush, endorsed Hillary Clinton. America’s two political parties have always been large tents, holding large swaths of opinions, and rebellions against those parties are not unheard of. However, the sheer amount of attention they paid to 2024’s defectors is remarkable, with hundreds of figures shedding their party label with a cross-endorsement.

Why do they do this? The answer will vary from candidate to candidate. Donald Trump’s presidency had permanently alienated a large portion of the Republican establishment. His 2016 primary opponent, Jeb Bush, refused to vote for him. The Democrats, for their part, have been exceptionally accommodating to these voices. Kamala Harris, who has been accused of being radical, has much to gain from cross-endorsements that she can point to as proof of moderation. The effect is similar for Donald Trump.

This strategy appears to have played out better for Trump than for Harris. In early September, a poll found that 47% of voters considered Harris ‘too liberal or progressive,’ while just 32% of voters found Trump ‘too conservative.’ This came less than a month after ex-Republicans spoke at the DNC and mere days after the endorsements of RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, who were the winners of the election itself.