Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is caught between his Make America Healthy Again supporters who need him to do extra to advance their priorities, together with curbing vaccines, and a White House attempting to fight President Donald Trump’s unpopularity.
Protesters’ chants may very well be heard from contained in the Cleveland City Club, the place Kennedy was chatting with a bipartisan group of residents as a part of his current tour of northern Ohio. His calls for mother and father to have extra “choice” on vaccinating their kids was met with applause from half of the room. The different half launched exasperated sighs and gasps.
His journey schedule is about to get busier: Kennedy is anticipated to stump for GOP lawmakers, touring to states with aggressive races in the upcoming midterm elections.
The objective of Kennedy’s marketing campaign appearances is to shore up assist for Republican candidates. But his focused presence underscores the more and more intense push and pull Kennedy faces as he works to keep up enduring political viability with GOP voters — particularly MAHA supporters.
His problem is sophisticated by a widening schism between the White House and Kennedy’s anti-vaccine campaign. Some MAHA adherents really feel betrayed by the Trump administration, which they are saying is thwarting the motion’s agenda by not doing extra to restrict pesticides, halt entry to covid pictures, or examine conspiracy theories about airplane contrails poisoning the skies.
Meanwhile, some in the MAHA camp hope Kennedy will announce his personal run for the White House in 2028.
But Kennedy says he has no such aspirations. Asked by KFF Health News on May 7 whether or not he sees a path to run for the presidency once more as a Republican, he replied firmly: “No, I’m not going to run.”
Changing his place about operating would put Kennedy on a collision course with President Donald Trump, who’s reportedly weighing Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance as potential successors. (Trump, too, has mused about operating once more in 2028, although the twenty second Amendment would prohibit it.) A Kennedy candidacy may additionally sap a lot of the Trump administration’s work on different MAHA causes, as a result of the secretary would seemingly depart his position on the Department of Health and Human Services.
“If he isn’t secretary, then MAHA’s influence will severely diminish,” mentioned David Mansdoerfer, who served as deputy assistant secretary for well being at HHS in the primary Trump administration.
“Running would be perfectly logical for Bobby,” mentioned Christopher Bosso, a public coverage and political science professor at Northeastern University. “Kennedy is being a good soldier, but to what extent? That is going to be a question.”
Recent Trump administration actions have riled up MAHA supporters. The president in April nominated Erica Schwartz, a physician and vaccine supporter, to steer the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kennedy fired Susan Monarez, the company’s earlier director; she testified she was ousted for not preapproving vaccine suggestions.
Schwartz’s nomination and White House efforts to shift Kennedy’s focus away from vaccines stand in stark distinction with 2024, when Trump pledged to let Kennedy “go wild” on well being.
In an interview, Kennedy mentioned “I think I have” gone wild on well being. He shot down claims that the White House has restricted his work.
“President Trump has let me do more than any HHS secretary in history,” Kennedy mentioned.
Kennedy has mentioned he helps Schwartz, although he told lawmakers final month that he didn’t focus on her nomination with Trump. MAHA adherents have criticized her backing of covid vaccines, holding it up as proof that the White House is limiting the well being secretary.
“Trump’s pick to head the CDC, Erica Schwartz, would likely be a disaster,” Aaron Siri, a lawyer and Kennedy ally, mentioned on X, citing her work supporting the covid vaccine rollout.
Trump additionally withdrew the nomination of wellness influencer Casey Means, one other Kennedy ally, for U.S. surgeon common. In May, the president nominated Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News contributor. MAHA adherents have panned the choice, which displays a extra mainstream and conventional medical strategy to the place. Means had confronted pushback from some Republican senators for questioning contraception strategies and refusing to reject the debunked hyperlink between vaccines and autism.
“DOGE the Surgeon General!!! We want medical freedom!!!! If not Casey – we take no one!” Vani Hari, a MAHA influencer, mentioned May 1 on X.
Taken collectively, these actions threaten to weaken MAHA assist for GOP candidates. But many Republicans in aggressive races are already distancing themselves from the grassroots, vaccine-skeptical “medical freedom” motion led by Kennedy.
Many MAHA supporters additionally really feel let down by Trump administration directives that rolled again environmental regulations and promoted pesticides. Some now see a Kennedy presidency as vital to attaining their coverage targets.
Stephanie Weidle “100%” needs to see Kennedy run once more. The 34-year-old Washington, D.C., resident was outdoors the Supreme Court final month throughout a rally to oppose protections for the weed-killing chemical glyphosate.
A dependable Republican voter, Weidle described the administration’s actions as disappointing. She needs to see Kennedy go additional on inspecting the childhood vaccine schedule and limiting chemical use on crops.
“His hands have been tied,” Weidle mentioned of Kennedy. She believes the White House has ordered him to again down from these controversial points. “Republicans have made a grave misstep in not leading with MAHA.”
In the midst of those dynamics, Kennedy is trying to string the needle between the White House, which needs him to again away from attacking vaccines, and MAHA supporters who need him to do extra. He has sought to appease each side, praising Saphier because the surgeon common decide and describing her on X as a “long-time warrior for the MAHA movement.”
He’s additionally tempered his public concentrate on vaccines. His podcast, which he mentioned would “confront the lies” that result in sickness, has veered away from the subject and centered as a substitute on meals and diet.
During his current congressional hearings, he additionally targeted on initiatives that ballot effectively with voters. Appearing earlier than the House Ways and Means Committee, Kennedy supplied a gap assertion targeted on healthcare affordability and drug costs, points he had shied away from throughout his first few months on the job.
While he talked about his redesign of dietary tips and urgent trade to stop its use of sure meals dyes, he prevented extra controversial subjects that underscored his first few months in workplace, together with his try to upend the childhood vaccine schedule and efforts to discover causes of autism.
Despite his pivot to extra in style topics, Kennedy’s draw weakens past MAHA circles. A March straw ballot of greater than 1,600 attendees on the annual Conservative Political Action Conference discovered practically zero assist for him as a presidential candidate when individuals have been requested who they’d vote for if the election have been held in the present day.
“He has a constituency that is very much attached to MAHA that may not vote in the Republican primaries or in a general election,” mentioned Robert Blendon, professor emeritus of well being coverage and political evaluation at Harvard University.
Kennedy ran for president in the 2024 race as a Democrat, then as an unbiased, earlier than halting his marketing campaign in August 2024 and throwing his assist behind Trump.
Some of the president’s advisers credit score Kennedy’s MAHA voters with tipping the scales simply sufficient to assist Trump safe his 2024 election win. About a 3rd of U.S. adults now establish as MAHA supporters, based on a March poll by Politico, and assist is highest amongst Republicans who additionally again Trump’s Make America Great Again political motion.
Vaccine coverage is galvanizing voters on each side. Eighty-one % of voters mentioned vaccine coverage, together with choices about what vaccines are really useful for kids, will have an effect on their choice to vote in the 2026 midterm elections, based on a KFF poll performed in April. Voters mentioned they belief Democrats greater than Republicans on vaccine coverage and different well being points, based on the ballot.
But healthcare — particularly its prices — looms bigger as a problem. Sixty-four % of voters mentioned that they’re very or considerably nervous about healthcare, together with the price of medical insurance and out-of-pocket prices for issues like workplace visits and pharmaceuticals, and 88% mentioned such prices will have an effect on their vote.
Many of the MAHA devoted query whether or not their political muscle actually issues.
Republicans appear much less satisfied the constituency will make or break the midterm election outcomes.
Republicans in Congress and the administration “have decided not to run on MAHA for the midterms,” Robert Malone, a scientist and Kennedy ally who stepped away in March from his place on the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, mentioned April 16 on X.