Why A Maha Mom Who Loves Rfk Jr. Is Backing Democrats Who Don’t

DES MOINES — One of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s most prominent supporters is making good on her threat to endorse some Democrats just days before the midterm elections.

The Democrats on Zen Honeycutt’s list aren’t just any Democrats.

Her Moms Across America Movement is backing progressive firebrands such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, as well as candidates in crucial battlegrounds, like Rep. Chris Pappas, who’s running for Senate in New Hampshire.  

Kennedy has urged his supporters to stick with Republicans. If MAHA advocates follow Honeycutt’s lead it will undermine his efforts. Honeycutt is making the case that Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement needs to support candidates who get behind his plans to restrict pesticides and make food healthier, regardless of party, if it wants to see policies change.

“We expect Democrats and Republicans to work together. Health is not a political issue. You know, poison is not partisan. Cancer is not choosy,” Honeycutt said of her group’s endorsements.

“We can all work together to Make America Healthy Again, whether you call it that or not,” Honeycutt told POLITICO.

Her group has also backed dozens of Republicans and independents — the majority of its endorsements — and Honeycutt hasn’t pared back her support for Kennedy. On Wednesday evening, she took the stage at a MAHA rally in Iowa with the health secretary — and the state’s Republican candidate for governor, Zach Lahn — urging the crowd to support Lahn in the midterm elections. Lahn has centered his campaign around MAHA issues, including pesticide exposure and water quality, which he links to Iowa’s high cancer rates.

But for months, Make America Healthy Again activists have warned that they could abandon the MAGA-MAHA alliance if they didn’t see progress on the issues they care about. Honeycutt is particularly disappointed with actions taken by President Donald Trump, such as his move this year to boost production of the key ingredient in the weedkiller Round-up.

“The Republicans were supportive of this MAHA movement, but most of the Republicans in office did not follow through with the promises that we were given, especially around pesticides, and so they are losing a huge opportunity to Make America Healthy Again,” Honeycutt said.

Meanwhile, she said, some Democrats have proven allies.

Honeycutt’s group commended Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to give communities veto power over data center buildouts, an issue of increasing importance to MAHA activists. The group is also impressed with Ocasio-Cortez, Booker and Pappas’ support for stripping language out of a recent farm bill that could have shielded pesticide companies from lawsuits over the safety of their products. Other Democrats on the endorsement list include Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree and Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids.

In a statement to POLITICO, Booker said he was “grateful for the endorsement from Moms Across America [Movement].”

“I look forward to working with groups like this one as I continue to champion these issues in the coming months and years,” he added. His statement didn’t address questions about whether he’d back Democrats who want to impeach Kennedy.

Booker last year opposed Kennedy’s confirmation as health secretary, saying that even as he agreed with him about the dangers of unhealthy food he found some of his views “deeply concerning.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment. In April, during a congressional hearing, she and Kennedy agreed that insurance companies that provide Medicare plans were “fleecing the public.” But Ocasio-Cortez said Kennedy wasn’t doing enough to ensure they stopped. She has also made efforts to court MAHA voters, including in meetings with Honeycutt ahead of the endorsement and public comments commending their work on pesticides.

Honeycutt founded her nonprofit, Moms Across America, in 2013 to raise awareness about what she saw as the harms of commercial food production. Kennedy previously served as an adviser to the group, which reports having 3,000 volunteers nationwide. Honeycutt launched her group’s political advocacy arm, Moms Across America Movement, last year.

Her advocacy grew out of raising three children with “food allergies and autoimmune issues,” which she believes stemmed from pesticide exposure and childhood vaccines. After her 22-year-old son, Ben Armstrong Honeycutt, died by suicide in July of last year, she tied his mental health struggles to toxins in the food supply.

Honeycutt, like Kennedy and many who joined the MAHA movement, was a longtime Democrat before turning against the party for supporting vaccine mandates. She was an independent when she cast a vote for Trump in 2024.

She would be “hard pressed” to find a reason to vote for Trump now, she said, because he’s “done absolutely nothing” about pesticides.

“I do support that he has established the most ideologically diverse Cabinet ever, and that he had the wisdom to bring in Kennedy,” she said.

Other MAHA leaders said they understood where Honeycutt was coming from.

“She historically has been a Democrat. But these issues are nonpartisan so she's gonna advocate for anyone supporting. I admire how principled she is. She has a lot of integrity to the cause,” said Alex Clark, a MAHA influencer who works at the conservative group Turning Point USA.

Vani Hari, a prominent MAHA influencer who avoids directly endorsing political candidates, told POLITICO that while the Trump administration helped bring attention to the movement, its survival cannot depend on a single political party.

“I've always thought that MAHA needs to remain fiercely independent. That is not what happened, though,” Hari said.

“The only way we can truly hold our represented leaders accountable is to stay independent,” Hari said.

Others are concerned embracing Democrats could backfire.

MAHA PAC, a political group formed by Kennedy’s book publisher and ally Tony Lyons, has committed to endorsing only Republicans.

Kelly Ryerson, a MAHA influencer known as “Glyphosate Girl” online, told POLITICO she worries that if the Democrats gain control of Congress after the midterms, they will undermine Kennedy and impeach him. However, Ryerson has publicly praised Booker’s support for MAHA priorities.

“I can't imagine it not being a problem,” she said.