Rfk Jr.’s Followers Plan To Back Trump-endorsed Candidates

The leader of the political engine behind Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement plans to favor candidates endorsed by President Donald Trump in this year’s elections.

MAHA will work with candidates Trump supports to get “the best possible outcome for public health, for the issues that MAHA has been backing over the last year,” said Tony Lyons, president of the political group MAHA Action, at an event held by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington Monday.

Lyons’ commitment indicates that Kennedy and his movement don’t plan to operate as an independent political force, but rather will seek to ensure Republican primary candidates championed by Trump have an easy path to nomination. Kennedy also spoke at the Heritage event.

Lyons pointed to MAHA Action endorsing Louisiana Republican Rep. Julia Letlow in her Senate race against Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).

The group endorsed Letlow one day after Trump and committed to spending $1 million to support her campaign against Cassidy.

A number of other Republicans are vying for the GOP nomination and seeking to appeal to Kennedy backers.

Louisiana Republican state Sen. Blake Miguez has described himself as a “MAHA leader” and pushed policies favored by Kennedy’s supporters, including a proposed ban on ultraprocessed food in the state’s schools.

Former Trump White House aide and Republican Rep. John Fleming has criticized Cassidy for being “resistant to the reforms that RFK Jr. wants to bring” to the childhood vaccine schedule. Those changes included removing a recommendation that kids get annual shots to protect against Covid-19.

Cassidy has said that “changing the pediatric vaccine schedule based on no scientific input on safety risks and little transparency will cause unnecessary fear for patients and doctors, and will make America sicker.”

Letlow’s preferences have deviated from Kennedy’s in at least one important case.

She won her husband Luke’s seat after he died of Covid at age 41 in December 2020, and then strongly endorsed Covid vaccination. Kennedy has sought to discourage people from getting the shot, claiming it can have dangerous side effects.

Letlow's communications director, Matt Smith, said in a statement to POLITICO that the office doesn't comment on private conversations, "but Congresswoman Letlow is a huge supporter of the MAHA movement, especially ensuring children have access to healthy foods."

Lyons said he sees an ally in Letlow.

“There really are points of contact with her that are really going to be impressive to the MAHA movement as they get to know her better,” Lyons said.

These points include medical freedom, which MAHA advocates say allows people to make their own health decisions, like refusing vaccinations for themselves or their children; serving healthier lunches in schools; and strengthening food-ingredient regulations, according to Lyons.

Lyons said MAHA Action wants to support Trump and Kennedy’s alliance throughout Trump’s term.

“We think there’s a really great partnership that we can have with candidates all around the country to help them win, to help preserve this coalition, but also to make them more clear on what the MAHA issues are, what the science is behind them, what the propaganda and censorship in the past has obscured from the public so that they can then message that better and they can win in their races,” Lyons said.

MAHA activists are targeting Cassidy, a doctor and chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, because of his repeated criticism of Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes.

Cassidy also ran afoul of Trump in 2021 when he voted to convict him of inciting the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6.