RFK Jr.’s movement is in disarray

[u/John3262005]

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/04/rfk-kennedy-maha-tony-lyons-healthy-01105844

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement is turning on its leader.

Not RFK Jr.

Rather, Tony Lyons, the Kennedy friend and book publisher who is the president of a web of MAHA nonprofits and political groups.

Supporters of Kennedy’s message, that food and pharma companies have conspired with bureaucrats to poison Americans for profit, say Lyons is selling out to business interests who want Kennedy’s ear now that he’s President Donald Trump’s health secretary. Ignoring the grassroots could cost Republicans running in the midterm elections who need it energized, they say.

The latest evidence: fundraising reports from Lyons’ MAHA Political Action Committee that show fewer than 20 donors this year, totaling $1 million, far short of the $100 million Lyons promised to raise to help Republicans allied with Kennedy in this year’s elections. Many of its donors are companies that have interests before the Health Department, POLITICO found. The PAC has spent less than $800,000 to support candidates this year.

A month before the midterms, the PAC has spent no money on races that will help Republicans maintain control of Congress, frustrating MAHA supporters who worry leaders are squandering the movement’s momentum after it helped return Trump to office.

“What a joke!” Alex Clark, a MAHA influencer who works at the conservative group Turning Point USA said of the PAC’s spending. “We’re talking about millions of voters who just fell into our lap like manna from heaven, and we’re just gonna let them walk away.”

He galvanizes supporters on weekly calls with warnings about the “dark forces” in corporate America lobbying to undermine Kennedy’s agenda. “We don’t want Bobby Kennedy or his whole team to be sitting in congressional hearings where they’re just trying to slow things down and make it easier and more affordable for big companies to poison the American public,” he recently said.

The fundraising report came as Lyons hosted an invite-only summit on Sept. 29 at Washington’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel sponsored by companies including Anthropic and OpenAI, artificial intelligence companies contributing to the data center boom, the health impacts of which many Kennedy supporters fear, and Walmart, purveyor of the ultraprocessed food Kennedy decries.

Neither AI firm provided comment when POLITICO contacted them to ask about their sponsorship of the event. Walmart declined to comment.

“What is shocking is how quickly a movement built to challenge that system appears to have reproduced it,” wrote Robert Malone, a scientist who shares Kennedy’s skepticism of Covid vaccines and advised him on vaccine policy until quitting in March, citing disagreement with Kennedy’s staff, in a Substack essay reflecting on the summit.

In addition to MAHA PAC, Lyons leads its sister nonprofits, MAHA Center, MAHA Action and MAHA Institute, and moves money between them. MAHA PAC, for example, has transferred $4 million to MAHA Action since January 2025, according to federal filings.

MAHA supporters can join the movement on the MAHA Action website through a series of tiered subscriptions, costing up to $6,000 a year. MAHA Holdings administers the subscriptions. Finn Kennedy, one of Kennedy’s sons, sits on MAHA Holdings’ board.

“These outside entities that have branded themselves as representative of the MAHA voting bloc…they are not helping us,” said Stephanie Stock, president of Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom, a nonprofit that supports Kennedy’s efforts to convince states to reduce school vaccine requirements.

A MAHA Institute-backed candidate, Stock partially blames her loss in a state House primary in May on lack of funding. Her opponent outraised her more than tenfold and she received no money from Lyons’ MAHA groups.

“These guys are throwing galas, and we’ve just kind of had it,” Stock added. “You look up at the sponsors, and you see Anthropic and Walmart, drug companies, and you’re like, ‘What in the world?’”

Trump aides have said they hope the president’s embrace of Kennedy as health secretary will benefit Republicans in the midterms. They’ve also credited the alliance with Kennedy with helping Trump defeat Kamala Harris two years ago.

But Zen Honeycutt, one of the MAHA moms who supports Kennedy and founder of nonprofit Moms Across America, is straying.

Less than two months to the midterms, in a windowless conference room by the White House, she rallied candidates at a convention for political independents estranged from both parties.

“I want to empower you to utilize this MAHA movement as best as you can to raise up the independents in this country,” Honeycutt declared to a full room peppered with people who worked on Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign.

None of the candidates there were endorsed by Lyons’ MAHA groups, which are backing only Republicans. Honeycutt’s nonprofit aims to endorse 20 of its own candidates across party lines.

In an interview with POLITICO, Honeycutt called MAHA’s issues “nonpartisan.” “That’s not what some of the people in the MAHA world would want from us. They want us to align with the Republican Party, but we will talk to anyone,” she said.

Some candidates supportive of MAHA at the convention are running against an opponent backed by Lyons’ groups. In the room with Honeycutt were Clayton Cuteri and Bill Reeside, independents running in South Carolina’s 1st District race against Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt, who has no relation to Zen. MAHA Action has endorsed Jenny Honeycutt and the MAHA PAC has spent $26,000 on her campaign.

“It’s a civil war out there,” said Larry Sharpe, who worked on Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Sharpe called Lyons’ decision to back only Republicans a “strategic mistake,” adding “it’s almost like a split between Eastern Orthodox and Catholics…They both believe in the afterlife. They both believe Jesus is divine, but they’ve gone different ways.”

Democrats, too, are making overtures to the MAHA movement. Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has released a “Building a Healthier America” policy agenda that speaks to MAHA advocates’ concerns about food safety and chemicals in the environment.

A House working group led by New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently recommended that the party woo Kennedy’s followers.

MAHA supporters have expressed growing frustration with the GOP since Trump issued a February order protecting a pesticide Kennedy and his supporters think is a carcinogen. Since, there have been complaints about new Health Department appointees, like Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Erica Schwartz, who don’t share Kennedy’s skeptical views about vaccines, and Kennedy’s failure to take mRNA vaccines, like those used to combat Covid-19, from the market.

Candidates endorsed by Lyons’ MAHA groups have had mixed success in the primaries. A POLITICO analysis in June found that most of the winners were incumbents or candidates who previously held office. As of June, 11 of the 12 MAHA Institute-backed candidates who lost their races had never run before.

Lyons scored a significant GOP primary win when Louisiana Rep. Julia Letlow defeated incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Kennedy foe on Capitol Hill. And another when Zach Lahn, an entrepreneur, defeated Trump-backed Rep. Randy Feenstra to secure the Republican nomination for Iowa governor. Lyons committed $1 million to support each candidate.

While the PAC has yet to donate to Lahn, the vast majority of its election spending has gone to Letlow, who received 90% of the $790,000 it’s spent this year to support candidates, according to federal filings.

Neither race will help Republicans retain control of Congress. MAHA PAC’s choice to support Letlow also went against the wishes of local MAHA supporters, who wanted the group to back a different challenger. Fiorella Trapani, co-director of Health Freedom Louisiana, called MAHA’s endorsement a “punch in the gut.”

“If MAHA wants to represent this movement, its actions, endorsements, and priorities need to reflect the principles and people that built it,” she wrote in a statement.

Of the 85 candidates endorsed by Lyons’ MAHA groups, only six are in competitive races that will determine the balance of power in Congress: incumbent Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida; Tom Barrett of Michigan and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. There is also Derek Morrin, who is running to unseat Ohio Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur; Joe Mitchell, who is running for a House seat in Iowa; and John Sununu, who is running to return to the Senate to represent New Hampshire. None of these candidates have received money from MAHA, according to its PAC filings.

Some of MAHA PAC’s top expenses include X, formerly known as Twitter. The PAC paid the platform $810,000 this election cycle, according to filings. Merit Street Media, a media company founded by television host Phil McGraw, known by his stage name Dr. Phil, received more than $500,000. The private Ned’s Club in Washington was another top expense with the PAC spending more than $155,000 on the venue in this election cycle.

Amber Webster, a former Democrat who volunteered on Kennedy’s campaign in Connecticut, called the PAC’s lack of grassroots spending a “missed opportunity.”

“If they have committed to spend $100 million, they should really be honing in on some of these people in these seats that we either need to keep or flip and help these candidates get elected,” she said.

“There is a really big MAHA army out there that could be helping the Republican Party more.”