Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement is splitting apart just as Republicans hoped to cash in on it at the polls, according to MS NOW.
Two years ago, MAHA activists said they had built a once-in-a-generation coalition of health-focused parents, wellness devotees and vaccine skeptics, and they argued that dynamic had pushed independents and Democrats toward Trump in 2024.
“Unwrap the gift of MAHA that President Trump has handed you and win big in the midterms,” MAHA PAC president Tony Lyons wrote to Republican leaders in February.
On the eve of the midterms, much of that coalition is turning on Kennedy. Many people who worked on his presidential campaign now say he and Trump sold them out, and that the country is sicker for it.
The anger centers on what critics call “Big MAHA,” the network of PACs, companies and nonprofits tied to Kennedy and Lyons. Kennedy’s son Finn sits on the board of one of them, MAHA Holdings, which collects membership dues and runs the MAHA summit.
In October, Tiffany Cianci, an influencer who once campaigned for Kennedy, launched a “MAHA Scorecard” website. It tracks 42 promises she says Kennedy and Trump made on pesticides, clean water, school food and family farms. By her count, they have kept none.
One betrayal stands out to her: Kennedy supported an executive order to ramp up production of glyphosate, a pesticide he had claimed for years causes cancer. The order also gave its manufacturers limited legal immunity.
Dr. Robert Malone was hand-picked for Kennedy’s vaccine advisory panel, and last month he publicly tore into his former boss over the MAHA Summit. “MAHA rose to prominence by condemning precisely this convergence of money, access, industry influence, and government power,” Malone wrote. “Who exactly is MAHA for now?”
The anti-vaccine wing has also issued an ultimatum. Texas doctor Mary Talley Bowden wrote an open letter, signed by thousands, warning that Republicans would pay if Kennedy didn’t pull the Covid vaccine from the market.
“If you continue to ignore our central issue of removing the mRNA platform, the MAHA and health freedom movements will withdraw their support of you, and you will face the political consequences,” the letter stated.
The movement’s political operation has also fallen short. MAHA PAC announced a $100 million midterm campaign in March. Federal filings show it spent a little over $1 million, mostly on ads against Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and two of its three planned rallies, in Fort Worth and Lansing, were canceled without explanation.
The one rally that did happen was for Iowa GOP gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn, whom organizers call “the dream MAHA candidate.” Lahn trails Democrat Rob Sand in a state Trump carried by 13 points.
“From the beginning, the coalition, it was like herding cats,” said Jeff Hutt, who ran field operations for Kennedy’s presidential campaign. “That base that Kennedy brought into the Republican coalition, he was going to have to deliver on all the promises.”