Intent on helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “get a seat at the table at the White House,” a new political action committee that debuted earlier this week urges supporters of the independent presidential candidate to vote for former President Donald Trump.
Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) was founded by a dozen former senior staff members who spearheaded Kennedy’s campaign.
Jeff Hutt, who served as national field director for Kennedy’s presidential campaign, is one of the PAC’s founding members.
Four key pillars of Kennedy’s platform are addressing the chronic disease epidemic, enhancing children’s health, fighting censorship, and ending “forever wars” such as the Russia–Ukraine conflict.
“Our goal is to ensure that as many RFK Jr. [supporters] as possible vote for Trump, helping to win the election and bring RFK Jr.’s policies to the forefront of national governance,” Hutt told The Epoch Times on Sept. 7.
MAHA will align “RFK Jr.’s transformative policies with Mr. Trump’s proven leadership,” according to a statement released by the organization.
The PAC will focus on “advancing critical policy areas” that include combatting the chronic disease epidemic, advocating regenerative agriculture, preserving natural habitats, and dismantling corporate corruption and agency capture, Hutt said.
MAHA has started a fundraising campaign with a target of generating $3.5 million by Election Day, Hutt said.
The PAC has already received initial funding from supporters across the country, he said.
Beyond Election Day, the organization will support candidates who are aligned with the PAC’s policy goals.
Kennedy entered the presidential race in April 2023 to challenge President Joe Biden for the Democratic Party nomination.
The former Democrat announced he would run as an independent in October 2023 after facing hurdles from the Democratic National Committee, which Kennedy claimed was “rigging” the primary.
Since then, the DNC hired a political operative to combat independent and third-party candidates. The organization backed lawsuits in multiple states to keep Kennedy off the ballot.
On Aug. 23, Kennedy said that he believes he would have won the election “in an honest system” that included “open, fair primaries, with regularly scheduled debates, with a truly independent media untainted by government propaganda and censorship, in a system of nonpartisan courts and election boards.”
“After all, polls consistently showed me beating each of the other candidates in both favorability and in every head-to-head matchup,” he said.
Instead, Kennedy announced the suspension of his campaign in 10 battleground states and encouraged backers to shift their support for him to get Trump into the White House.
“Suspending my candidacy is a heartwrenching decision for me,” Kennedy said on Aug. 23.
Kennedy in a Trump Admin
Kennedy told The Epoch Times that he has talked to Trump about becoming part of his administration if the former president wins in November, though a set role has not been determined.Trump told the crowd at a rally on Aug. 23 at which Kennedy joined him on stage that he would establish a panel of top experts working with Kennedy “to investigate what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic health problems and childhood diseases.”
At a Sept. 7 rally in Wisconsin, Trump restated the plan.
“Working with RFK Jr., we will take on the corruption at the FDC, the CDC, the World Health Organization, and other institutions of public health,” Trump said.
“Bobby’s going to be very much involved in that. We’re going to get him involved because that’s what he likes, that’s what he’s great at.”
Trump has also asked Kennedy to be part of his transition team “to help pick the people who will be running the government.”
Because of Kennedy’s long career and passion for advancing health, speculation has mounted that he could fill a role such as Secretary of Health and Human Services, which has a portfolio of 13 agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health.
Since the beginning of his campaign, Kennedy has criticized those agencies as exemplifying the “corporate capture of government agencies.”
Last week, Kennedy told Dr. Calley Means in a podcast that if he is part of a new Trump administration, that administration would “declare a state of emergency” regarding public health.
Kennedy has pointed out that when his uncle, John F. Kennedy, was president and his father, Robert F. Kennedy, was attorney general, the United States’ health spending represented just 6 percent of the gross domestic product.
“Today, it’s 22 percent. It’s almost three times our military budget,” Kennedy told Means.
Kennedy has also noted that obesity rates have tripled since the early 1960s. The “industrialization of the food supply” is one cause of the chronic disease epidemic, Kennedy said.
“We spend more on health care than any country on Earth, and we have the worst health outcomes of any nation. Nobody has a chronic disease burden like we have,” Kennedy said.
During his Aug. 23 address, Kennedy said: “If I’m given the chance to fix the chronic disease crisis and reform our food production, I promise that within two years, we will watch the chronic disease burden lift dramatically.
Urges Supporters to Vote for Trump
Initially, Kennedy asked supporters to vote for him in non-battleground states where he would not be a “spoiler” who took away votes from Trump.In an email on Sept. 6, his messaging shifted.
“No matter what state you live in, I urge you to vote for Donald Trump. The reason is that is the only way we can get me and everything I stand for into Washington D.C. and fulfill the mission that motivated my campaign,” Kennedy wrote.
“As you know, this could be a very close election. A disputed election result would be a disaster for our divided nation. President Trump needs to win in a landslide both in the Electoral College and the popular vote. He can’t do it unless my supporters join him and look at the big picture.”
Hutt praised Kennedy’s decision and reiterated that Trump’s return to the White House would give Kennedy a platform to accomplish his campaign pillars.
“We have no doubt that in swing states, Mr. Kennedy’s appeal can put President Trump over the top,” Hutt said.
Last month, Kennedy said he had collected more than 1 million signatures overall and had gathered enough to get on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. He attributed the feat to a “grassroots army” of more than 100,000 volunteers.
Hutt said that now those volunteers and supporters “need to take that energy and refocus it into getting Mr. Kennedy a seat at the table at the White House with a unity ticket with Donald Trump.”
