{"id":11943,"date":"2026-03-12T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=11943"},"modified":"2026-03-12T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T09:00:00","slug":"republicans-fret-over-rfk-jr-s-anti-vaccine-policies-while-maha-moms-stew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=11943","title":{"rendered":"Republicans Fret Over RFK Jr.\u2019s Anti-Vaccine Policies While MAHA Moms Stew"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is fielding pressure from the White House to relax his controversial approach to vaccine policies as the midterms near, but his most steadfast supporters are pressing for more aggressive action \u2014 like restricting covid-19 vaccines and pesticide use \u2014 to carry out the Make America Healthy Again<\/a> agenda.<\/p>\n

The tensions risk fraying Kennedy\u2019s dynamic MAHA coalition, potentially driving away critical supporters who helped fuel President Donald Trump\u2019s 2024 election win.<\/p>\n

The movement\u2019s grassroots membership includes suburbanites, women, and independents who are generally newer entrants to the GOP and laser-focused on achieving certain results around the nation\u2019s food supply and vaccines.<\/p>\n

Promoting healthy foods tops their list and will be at the center of the White House\u2019s pitch to voters during the midterm election cycle.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s mass appeal partly lies in his willingness to question our country\u2019s broken status quo,\u201d White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement. \u201cThat includes food standards and nutrition guidelines that have helped fuel America\u2019s chronic disease epidemic. Overhauling our food supply and nutrition standards to deliver on the MAHA agenda remains a key priority for both the President and his administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, with most Americans opposing efforts to undermine vaccines<\/a>, the White House has cooled on Kennedy\u2019s aggressive policies to curb vaccines and MAHA\u2019s interest in tamping down environmental chemicals that are linked to disease.<\/p>\n

The result: Republicans are realizing just how demanding the MAHA vote can be. Moms Across America leader Zen Honeycutt warned that Republicans are facing their biggest setback yet with the MAHA movement, after Trump signed an executive order to support production of glyphosate, a herbicide the World Health Organization has linked to cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has caused the biggest uproar in MAHA,\u201d Honeycutt said during a CNN interview in late February.<\/p>\n

A White House Warning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s top pollster, Tony Fabrizio, cautioned in December that an embrace of Kennedy\u2019s anti-vaccine policies could cost politicians their jobs this year.<\/p>\n

Eight in 10 MAHA voters and 86% of all voters believe vaccines save lives, his poll of 1,000 voters in 35 competitive districts found.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the districts that will decide the control of the House of Representatives next year, Republican and Democratic candidates who support eliminating long standing vaccine requirements will pay a price in the election,\u201d a memo<\/a> on the poll stated.<\/p>\n

The White House has since shaken up senior staffing at HHS, including removing Jim O\u2019Neill<\/a> from the deputy secretary role and his job as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in which he curtailed the agency\u2019s childhood vaccination recommendations. Ralph Abraham, a vaccine skeptic who as Louisiana\u2019s surgeon general suspended its vaccination promotion program last year, stepped down as the CDC\u2019s principal deputy director in late February.<\/p>\n

Jay Bhattacharya<\/a>, a doctor who said in congressional testimony that he doesn\u2019t believe vaccines cause autism, is now running the CDC in addition to directing the National Institutes of Health.<\/p>\n

Though Trump himself has frequently espoused doubts and mistruths about vaccines, polling around anti-vaccine policy has undoubtedly shaken the White House\u2019s confidence during a tough midterm election year, said former U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshon<\/a>, an Indiana Republican and retired doctor who left Congress last year.<\/p>\n

Bucshon said Republicans can\u2019t risk alienating voters, especially parents of young children who might be moved by Democratic attack ads on the topic at a time when hundreds of measles cases are popping up across the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the reason you\u2019re seeing the White House get nervous about it,\u201d Bucshon said. \u201cThis is just the political reality of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy built some of his MAHA following with calls to end federal approval and recommendations for the covid vaccines during the pandemic. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a federal panel of outside experts who were handpicked by Kennedy to develop national vaccine recommendations, is expected to review and possibly withdraw its recommendation for covid shots. Its February meeting was postponed and is now scheduled for March 18-19, when the panel plans to discuss injuries from covid vaccines, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon confirmed on March 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not deaf to the calls that we need to get the covid vaccine mRNA products off the market. All I can say is stay tuned and wait for the upcoming ACIP meeting,\u201d ACIP Vice Chair Robert Malone said on MJTruthUltra<\/a>, a conservative account on the social platform X, before the meeting was postponed. \u201cIf the FDA won\u2019t act, there are other entities that will.\u201d<\/p>\n

No Fury Like Scorned MAHA Moms<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bipartisan support is also extremely high \u2014 above 80% \u2014 for another core tenet of the MAHA agenda: eliminating the use of certain pesticides on crops.<\/p>\n

But MAHA leaders were incensed when Trump issued a Feb. 18 executive order<\/a> promoting the production of glyphosate, a chemical used in weed killers sprayed on U.S. crops and which Kennedy has railed against and sued over because of its reported links to cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s gonna be ups and downs, and there is zero question that this week was a down,\u201d Calley Means, a senior adviser to the health secretary and a former White House employee, told a MAHA rally in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 26. \u201cI am not going to gaslight or sugarcoat it: This glyphosate thing was extremely disappointing. Bobby\u2019s disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite deep unhappiness from MAHA followers, Kennedy endorsed Trump\u2019s executive order defending access to such pesticides.<\/p>\n

\u201cI support President Trump\u2019s Executive Order to bring agricultural chemical production back to the United States and end our near-total reliance on adversarial nations,\u201d Kennedy wrote on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Without offering policy changes, Kennedy promised a future agricultural system that \u201cis less dependent on harmful chemicals.\u201d<\/p>\n

White House officials are now trying to downplay the executive order.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President\u2019s executive order was not an endorsement of any product or practice,\u201d Desai said in a statement.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s done little to dampen criticism from leading MAHA influencers who had hoped, with Kennedy\u2019s influence in the administration, that the chemical would be banned.<\/p>\n

Some Democrats see an opening.<\/p>\n

Rep. Chellie Pingree<\/a> of Maine earned cheers from MAHA loyalists for co-sponsoring legislation with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to undo the executive order.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump Admin. cannot keep paying lip service to #MAHA<\/a> while propping up Big Chemical like this and choosing corporate profits over Americans\u2019 health,\u201d Pingree said on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Vani Hari<\/a>, a prominent MAHA influencer who promotes healthy eating, responded on X with a \u201cHELL YES.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Eat Real Food\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The White House and Kennedy are refocusing their messaging to emphasize one of the most popular elements of the MAHA platform: food.<\/p>\n

At the start of the year, Kennedy unveiled new dietary guidelines that emphasize vegetables, fruits, and meats while urging Americans to avoid ultraprocessed foods.<\/p>\n

Kennedy has leaned into his new \u201cEat Real Food\u201d campaign, launching a nationwide tour in January. Ahead of the late-February MAHA rally, he stopped at a barbecue joint in Austin where he took photos with stacks of smoked ribs and grilled sausages. Large \u201cEat Real Food\u201d signs have been provided for crowds of supporters to hold up during major announcements at HHS\u2019 headquarters this year.<\/p>\n

Focusing on nutrition will please MAHA moms, suburban swing voters, and conservatives alike, said Michael Burgess<\/a>, a physician and former Republican representative from Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey keep them happy by talking about the food pyramid,\u201d Burgess said. \u201cThat\u2019s an area where there is broad, bipartisan support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Fabrizio\u2019s poll shows equal support \u2014 95% \u2014 among respondents who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris and those who voted for Trump for requiring labeling of harmful ingredients in ultraprocessed foods.<\/p>\n

Trump is keenly aware that Kennedy\u2019s MAHA movement is key to his political survival. At a Cabinet meeting in January, Kennedy rattled off a list of his agency\u2019s efforts researching autism and tackling high drug prices.<\/p>\n

Trump leaned in at the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cI read an article today where they think Bobby is going to be really great for the Republican Party in the midterms,\u201d Trump said<\/a>, \u201cso I have to be very careful that Bobby likes us.\u201d<\/p>\n

KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

USE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n

This story can be republished for free (details<\/a>).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is fielding pressure from the White House to relax his controversial approach to vaccine policies as the midterms near, but his most steadfast supporters are pressing for more aggressive action \u2014 like restricting covid-19 vaccines and pesticide use \u2014 to carry out the Make America Healthy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11943"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}