When a “Make America Wholesome Once more” summit was held on the posh Waldorf Astoria in Washington, the road of attendees stretched down the block.
The daylong, invitation-only occasion in November featured a who’s who of MAHA luminaries. Vice President JD Vance attended, as did Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the chief of the advert hoc motion whose members rail towards vaccines, Huge Pharma, and ultraprocessed meals.
Throughout a hearth chat that organizers broadcasted on-line, Vance extolled MAHA’s influence on the Trump administration, calling it “a important a part of our success in Washington.”
The summit underscored simply how carefully Republicans have hitched themselves to the MAHA marketing campaign, banking on its reputation to present them an electoral bounce within the midterms. However the technique carries dangers, as a result of assist for Kennedy is cratering and polls present voters care extra about lowering well being care prices than MAHA priorities resembling ending vaccine mandates and selling uncooked milk.
“Polls present clearly MAHA points will not be the highest points for individuals,” stated Robert Blendon, a professor emeritus of well being coverage and political evaluation at Harvard College. “The highest well being care voting difficulty is price, and prices are literally rising.”
The disconnect was on show Nov. 12, the day of the MAHA summit, the place attendees picked up swag luggage and mingled amid the lodge’s blue-velvet couches and crystal chandeliers.
A number of blocks away on the White Home, President Donald Trump that day signed laws to reopen the federal authorities. The 43-day shutdown centered on disagreement over expiring Reasonably priced Care Act subsidies, which Democrats needed to increase and GOP congressional management declined to take up. The federal government went again to enterprise and, within the midst of a political and legislative push and pull, these subsidies expired on the finish of 2025. That has fueled the nationwide affordability debate, as lots of the roughly 24 million individuals who purchase protection on the well being regulation’s marketplaces are actually going through premium funds greater than double what they confronted final yr. In January, Congress continues to wrestle with what has emerged as a key kitchen desk difficulty.
Stated Blendon: “MAHA is just not decreasing the price.”
MAHA was mainstreamed as a part of the political platform embraced by Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine activist who ran for president in 2023 and 2024. When he suspended his marketing campaign and endorsed Trump, Kennedy united MAHA with conservatives, marrying the “well being freedom” motion with MAGA.
However the motion took root earlier than then, throughout the covid pandemic, grounded in the concept that the U.S. is within the throes of a continual illness epidemic brought on by corruption within the meals, medical, and pharmaceutical industries, in addition to federal businesses. Some adherents are also skeptical of or against vaccines.
“Covid was actually eye-opening for individuals,” stated Andrea Nazarenko, a psychologist and MAHA supporter who co-authored a e-book on meals as drugs. “They realized, ‘Wait a minute — the programs I trusted might not be as reliable as I assumed.’ At its core, individuals are noticing the programs they relied on are failing them.”
MAHA has since emerged as an influential drive for the GOP, gaining vital clout in a short while. Living proof: Early this month, Kennedy introduced new dietary tips and up to date childhood vaccine suggestions, which have been each a part of the motion’s want listing and departures from current frameworks.
As well as, members of Congress have based a MAHA caucus. Lawmakers in Republican-led states are introducing or passing laws to advance the MAHA agenda, together with legal guidelines to limit mRNA vaccines or ban sure components in meals. And meals producers together with Nestle, Common Mills, and Kraft Heinz have pledged to take away synthetic dyes or components.
Republicans see the MAHA constituency as important within the 2026 midterm elections and past. Its supporters embody fascinating voting demographics — independents and a few Democrats, a lot of whom are ladies, youthful voters, or suburbanites. About 21% of unbiased voters and eight% of Democratic voters held a good or considerably favorable view of MAHA as of early fall, based on a ballot by Change Analysis.
“I feel one motive I received reelection was that I advocated for the covid-vaccine-injured and was an ally of Bobby Kennedy again then when he was being vilified,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) stated. “Folks appreciated that. It’s about fundamental well being.”
Republicans are relying on a MAHA bounce, and political analysts say they might want it. The get together took a drubbing in November’s statewide races, and Trump’s approval ranking has slumped from 47% in early 2025 to 36% by December, based on Gallup polls. These are ominous tendencies for the GOP, because the get together with the presidency has misplaced floor in 20 of the previous 22 midterm Home elections.
In the meantime, cracks are beginning to threaten the Make America Nice Once more coalition and the lockstep assist Trump has loved from Capitol Hill Republicans. Whereas MAGA reveals indicators of weakening, MAHA is flourishing.
“Kennedy has ratified the Republican agenda round well being and meals,” stated David Mansdoerfer, who served in HHS management throughout the first Trump administration. “We sound very very like the problems Democrats have been into within the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s. We’ve virtually completed a 180 and co-opted a subject beneath a Republican agenda.”
Kennedy is predicted to quickly examine one other merchandise off MAHA’s listing by urgent states to take away fluoride from the water provide, based on a supply who requested to stay nameless as a result of he isn’t approved to talk to the media.
However Republicans’ embrace of MAHA within the run-up to the November midterm elections may additionally price them, political strategists say.
Polling reveals standard assist for MAHA initiatives resembling ridding meals of artificial dyes, however voters are far much less obsessed with Kennedy and his denouncements of vaccines and efforts to restrict entry to them. Virtually 60% of adults disapprove of his work as head of HHS, based on polling launched in October by KFF, a well being data nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information.
And solely 26% of registered voters assist defunding mRNA vaccine analysis, based on a September survey by left-leaning pollster Navigator Analysis. In the identical ballot, 3 in 4 reported feeling positively towards the measles vaccine.
Nonetheless, the Trump administration has broadened and accelerated its assault on vaccines. The Meals and Drug Administration’s high vaccine official in November stated in a memo that the company would overhaul vaccine regulation, asserting with out proof that at the very least 10 youngsters had died from covid photographs.
In December, a federal vaccine advisory panel handpicked by Kennedy voted to cease recommending routine vaccination of newborns towards hepatitis B. Medical teams denounced the panel’s actions, saying the vaccine is protected and that the advice would result in extra infections with the virus, which causes critical liver harm.
Democrats see a gap. The Democratic Docs Caucus, a bunch of medical docs in Congress, issued a press release condemning the federal advisory panel’s modified suggestion on the hepatitis B vaccine, calling it an assault on fundamental science. And Democratic Reps. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, Diana DeGette of Colorado, and Yvette Clarke of New York wrote to the FDA commissioner demanding information from the company on the covid dying claims.
Highlighting the dangers of the Trump administration’s anti-vaccine initiatives is simply a part of Democrats’ sport plan to counter Republicans’ alliance with MAHA.
Strategists describe three goals: Expose GOP insurance policies that run counter to MAHA priorities; trumpet Democrats’ efforts to sort out well being care prices; and spotlight their very own get together’s work on such MAHA objectives as cracking down on pesticide-makers.
“If individuals need to be more healthy, they want inexpensive well being care, and Democrats are the one ones pushing for inexpensive well being care,” stated C.J. Warnke, communications director for the Home Majority PAC, a fundraising group that works to elect extra Democrats.
Most notably, the technique up to now hasn’t actually concerned assaults on Kennedy or MAHA itself.
“If Democrats deal with attacking Kennedy, saying he’s loopy and he has a mind worm, some voters hear that as reinforcing the notion that Democrats are wedded to Huge Pharma and Huge Ag,” stated Justin Zorn, a senior adviser on the Middle for Financial and Coverage Analysis, a progressive nonprofit targeted on financial coverage.
So Democrats will speak about their persevering with combat to handle well being care prices, resembling with a potential retroactive repair to the now-expired ACA subsidies, or a invoice by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to stop pesticide producers from getting authorized immunity towards well being claims. They usually plan to debate Trump administration actions that seemingly run counter to the MAHA agenda, resembling a call by the Environmental Safety Company to chill out the well being assessments of the carcinogen formaldehyde.
“The whole lot they’re doing truly makes individuals sicker with larger payments, dirtier air, and fewer individuals lined with insurance coverage,” stated Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist. “Democrats do have to take MAHA severely and may’t brush it off. The core is to point out Democrats are targeted on well being and well being care and exposing what the Republican agenda means.”
For Republicans, the following batch of MAHA occasions and summits is already scheduled. After taking a political again seat in recent times, well being care might dominate the 2026 election races.
KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is without doubt one of the core working packages at KFF—an unbiased supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. Be taught extra about KFF.
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