RFK Jr. Brought Republicans A New Wave Of Voters — Can They Keep Them?

President Trump’s successful nomination of former Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the Secretary of Health and Human Services widened the Republican Party’s tent and brought a new generation of voters into the fold. 

Health-conscious centrists, crunchy hippies and political agnostics are all part of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. They’ve become strange bedfellows to Trump’s MAGA contingent. Now, the ball is in the GOP’s court on how to keep them around. 

Evan Barker, a political strategist who has worked on numerous Democratic congressional and presidential campaigns, said the party shunned their own voters who had concerns over chronic health issues and vaccines. 

“These people were already moving away from the Democratic party because they felt disenfranchised for various reasons,” she told the Caller. 

One such person is Emma Avans. Avans was born with a heart defect. Later in her life she started experiencing debilitating migraines and seizure symptoms. When a doctor prescribed medication, Avans, who described herself as a left-leaning libertarian, was skeptical and asked about a more holistic approach.

“He looks at me and goes ‘well if you won’t take this, what do you expect me to do about it?’ And I was like fine, I’ll do it myself.”

This was when she stumbled onto Kennedy Jr. and his bestselling book “The Real Anthony Fauci.” 

𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫

He has written many books about politics, environmental policy, and public health throughout his life.

This includes the New York Times Best Seller, The Real Anthony Fauci, where he outlines the corruption between the government agencies… pic.twitter.com/N9R1exDIEe

— Anna Matson (@AnnaRMatson) January 28, 2025

Avans said that the public’s visceral reaction to former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) head Anthony Fauci intrigued her and led her down the path to finding Kennedy Jr.

“During the 2020 campaign I was like OK everyone hates this guy, but I don’t really understand why. I wasn’t very political at the time,” she told the Caller. 

Having previously been disillusioned with the Republican Party, Avans, who said she wanted to see Trump pick Tulsi Gabbard as his vice president, described feeling hopeful about politics for the first time.

“With RFK on the ballot, and for the first time having the MAHA movement, it’s like there’s hope. There’s somebody standing up for me because I can’t really stand up against Big Pharma. I can’t stand up against the FDA. I can’t read all the research studies,” she said.

Her story is one shared by scores of left-leaners who are, perhaps now for the first time, open to voting Republican. (RELATED: RFK’s MAHA Army Descends On Nation’s Capital — From Left, Right And Center)

Del Bigtree, who served as the Communications Director for Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign, was a lifelong liberal. He’s still a registered Democrat. “I just keep that out of spite,” he told the Caller. 

Bigtree was raised during the 60s in the liberal bastion of Boulder, Colorado. “I grew up in what you can probably call a crunchy granola family. My parents were ex-hippies. They literally marched in the 60s,” he told the Caller.  

He says the Democratic Party has lost its way. 

“We all grew up vegetarians, or whatever new diet fad as a kid, vitamins and natural health. And it’s amazing that I think the Democrats just ceded that entire group over the Republican Party. It’s one of the greatest, I think, polar shifts in politics that we’ve seen, certainly in my lifetime.”

I asked @delbigtree of @MAHAalliance about the media’s reporting on some of @RobertKennedyJr ideas, particularly his suggestion that communities end public water fluoridation.

“The mainstream media is going to bankrupt itself if it keeps avoiding the topics people care about.” pic.twitter.com/ylhRX4tzzF

— Rob (@RobMcGravytrain) February 14, 2025

The Democratic Party losing its way is only half the equation — the other requires Republicans to pick up the mantle to bring these voters into the fold on a long-term basis. Some have started to work on once-left-wing issues like food safety, chemicals in the water and the environment, nutrition and diet and vaccine skepticism.

Republican Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has led the charge on trying to restrict and label food products which include unhealthy seed oils. “Not an outright ban,” she previously told the Daily Caller, “but labeling similar to how you would label a cigarette box or something that’s toxic for you, so that people can be health conscious and aware of this.”

Not long ago, it was First Lady Michele Obama taking up the fight against childhood obesity with her “Let’s Move!’ initiative. Now, Republican Senators Katie Britt of Alabama and Mike Lee of Utah are the ones attempting to combat unhealthy lifestyle choices, recently announcing a bill to stop taxpayer dollars in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from going to junk food.

The Republican-controlled legislature in Utah also recently sent a bill to the governor’s desk to ban the use of fluoride in public water systems, an issue that Kennedy Jr. has personally championed.

“I think it’s amazing that Republicans are now fighting for organic farming. When you look at Thomas Massie, I mean, the guy back when probably seemed like he would have been a Democrat, but he’s out there fighting for clean food, better farming practices. All of these things are wrapped up now in this MAHA movement which I think has made the Republicans the strongest party, certainly in this nation,” Bigtree told the Caller.

If I am to outlast these bastards, I must eat properly. Grass-fed beef and duck eggs (free range pond raised + non-GMO feed) from the farm. Won’t mention the beverage, lest the bastards find hope. pic.twitter.com/a94fEgCKBJ

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 18, 2023

Bigtree castigated the Democrats’ “critical error” in voting against Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

“They’re going to have to live with that. Now the Republicans have embraced all of these, really the best of what the Democratic Party had, so now it’s got everything. It’s got freedom, it’s got liberty, it’s got sovereignty, it’s got individualism, and it’s got health, and it’s got protection for our children and getting chemicals out of our food. I mean, why go anywhere else?” he asked.

“I think the Democrats are going to struggle for decades, trying to recover from a grave error, which was to embrace completely the pharmaceutical industry, the big ag industry, the big chemical industries, the chemicals in our food.”

The Senate confirmed Kennedy Jr. as HHS Secretary, 52-48, with Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell being the lone Republican no vote. Not a single Democrat voted for him.

“Watching those Senate hearings prove to me that politics is dirty and disgusting actually, because watching the Democrats talk about measles 35 times, and not mention obesity, chronic disease, diabetes at all in that hearing was something that I couldn’t believe,” Vani Hari, an author, activist and former delegate for Barack Obama told the Daily Caller.

Some Democrats who had indicated they agreed with Kennedy Jr.’s positions on chronic illnesses and opposition to pharma and food giants, like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, were the most vocally opposed to him during the hearings. One exchange between Sanders and Kennedy Jr. went viral when Sanders questioned Kennedy about an article of clothing sold on the Children’s Health Defense website. (RELATED: Bernie Sanders Explodes After RFK Calls Him Out For Big Pharma Funding Corruption)

“Are you supportive of these onesies?!” Sanders shouted while Kennedy Jr. laughed.

BERNIE: “Are you supportive of these onesies??”

Megyn Kelly loses it 🤣 pic.twitter.com/7TQ1iJAplE

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) January 29, 2025

Hari, who attended the hearings with her daughter “because I wanted her to see what it takes to stand up to corruption,” expressed disappointment with Sanders’ focus.

“Even Bernie Sanders, who I know normally is very, very hip on these food issues … I was really surprised that he questioned RFK Jr. about those onesies,” she told the Caller.

Hari, who founded the Truvani food brand and runs a massively popular social media account, has spent her career advocating against harmful chemicals and food additives. She has credited her crusades against chemicals like azodicarbonamide as influencing companies like Anheuser-Busch to be more transparent in their product labelling.

Like Bigtree, she noted that it was a massive mistake for the Democrats to have summarily rejected Kennedy Jr. and his ideas.

“They do not have a clear leader that is going to help change the health trajectory of Americans,” she said. “It is a huge missed opportunity, because there are so many people like me who want to come at this from a bipartisan perspective, who don’t want to make it about politics, that want to make it about human health, because poison is not partisan. You know, a child does not know whether you’re Democrat or Republican when they get diagnosed with ADHD.”

The MAHA coalition is broad, and while there are reasons to believe it can bring lasting growth to the Republican Party, Barker noted that whether or not the new folks stick around is up to RFK Jr.

“It will come down to how much RFK Jr. is actually able to get done as HHS,” she told the Caller. ” She noted there could be friction between the MAHA movement and House Republicans who may be in favor of making cuts to Medicaid.

“I think Trump should reject these proposals from old-school GOP factions in the House to keep the independents and disaffected Democrats under the big tent of the GOP,” Barker concluded.

And it remains to be seen if the MAHA movement will have interest in sticking with Republicans when RFK is out of the picture, or if the movement is tied to where his allegiance lies.

Others, however argued the movement could be here to stay.

“This got a whole new wave of people engaged in politics, and that’s a win for democracy, for the country. Regardless of political party, that’s a really good thing,” Emma Post, the press secretary for MAHA Action, told the Caller.

“There’s so much potential and opportunity with this fresh wave, I think, you know, around MAHA and beyond.” 

Post did, however, note that the movement had to be issue-based.

“It shows you the power of people converging around an issue. And I do think that that has staying power,” she concluded.

While previously expressing disillusionment with the party, Avans seems to have changed her tune.

“I think it’s a different Republican Party than it was in 2022 with the midterm. The Republicans that I saw then are very different than the Republicans that I see now.”

Avans pointed to the party’s realignment, arguing the MAHA coalition has completely reshaped the GOP.

“Everything changed when I realized, ‘oh it’s not Republican versus Democrat, it’s everybody vs. the elite.’ It’s the people who I don’t even know exist who run these giant insurance corporations and who own these Big Pharma corporations. It’s all of them in bed together,” she continued.

“That’s why I think I like RFK so much is because he caters to both the old-time Democrats who loved Kennedy and JFK and that history and also the new Republicans who say I don’t really care if you’re gay, but I don’t want you to tell me what to do. I’m very very excited about it.”