RFK Jr. on the Campaign Trail?
Remember the midterms of 2022? It was the red wave that wasn’t. Republicans regained the House, but nowhere near the numbers everyone predicted. The country had turned against Joe Biden, and so the red wave was supposed to arrive — instead it was a trickle. Republicans were blamed for fielding a slate of unattractive, “radical” candidates who made even the democrats look good by comparison.
Is history repeating itself? Most of country has turned against Donald Trump, and we’re being told this time to expect a blue wave even though the democrats are the ones fielding a slate of candidates who would traditionally be called unattractive. Some are just plain weird. Consider that in the races for the Senate, democrats are polling ahead in eight states: Texas, Ohio, Michigan, Maine, New Hampshire, Alaska, Georgia, and North Carolina. Texas and Michigan are the real eye-openers. Could Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico actually pull off the improbable and win in Michigan and Texas? Has Trump made these races “lean democrat?”
Tariffs and gas prices have hurt Trump and by extensions the republicans. Will it be enough to propel the two democratic socialists to victory? We will see. Meanwhile, republicans have responded with all the urgency of a committee meeting — floating a federal gas tax holiday and a ban on diesel exports. “Voters aren’t happy, and we’re in charge,” warned Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.), who — mercifully for him — isn’t up for reelection this cycle.
Being gutless, none of them are calling on the president to suspend his tariffs or wind down the war in the Gulf, which are the real culprits behind the pain at the pump and in the pocketbook. Instead, the president still blames Joe Biden and has found a scapegoat several time zones away, blaming the Russia-Ukraine war for high gas prices. Trump posted that the conflict has taken Russian diesel refineries offline, adding that “this ridiculous and never-ending war with Ukraine must be ended.” Few believe him. In a let-them-eat-cake moment at a North Carolina rally, he even said high fuel prices were “a very inexpensive price to pay” for the Iran war, and that prices would come down “like rocket ships in reverse” — an image that raises more questions about rocket science than it answers about gas prices. Again, few believe him, and North Carolina’s Senate seat — which might have had a better shot had Thom Tillis not been pushed out — looks all but lost to republicans.
What I find surprising is that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is out campaigning for republican candidates, having traveled to Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Florida. Republicans apparently believe Kennedy can boost turnout by energizing supporters of his Make America Healthy Again agenda. One MAHA activist put it this way: “He’s going to be unleashed to talk about his issues because it’s always wildly popular.” In Iowa, for instance, Kennedy campaigned in a vulnerable republican’s district to talk about threats to children’s health, rallying alongside GOP gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn, a MAHA-endorsed farmer who has made the health risks of pesticides part of his platform. Huh? Can’t the farmers choose not to use risky pesticides? Why is this a campaign issue?
So while the democrats have turned Kennedy into a political boogeyman, highlighting his weirdness, vaccine skepticism and the agency decisions that may have undermined public health, republicans apparently see it very differently. Which side has it right? We will find out. Kennedy has campaigned for Reps. Tom Barrett of Michigan, Gabe Evans of Colorado, and Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, and with Sen. Ashley Moody of Florida, who doesn’t appear especially vulnerable. “The MAHA movement is one of the most important forces in American politics right now,” said Mike Marinella, a spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee. “RFK Jr. has been a powerful force on the campaign trail as he helps our Republican candidates get their message across to voters who prioritize making America healthy again.”
Kennedy’s overall approval rating stood at 39% in one survey conducted this spring, but that number climbed to 68% among voters who identified themselves as MAHA supporters. Honestly, sixty-eight percent feels like a modest showing for a man whose fan base treats him like a folk hero. You would think the number would be higher among the anti-pesticide, raw-milk, Prozac causes school shootings, vaccines cause autism, anti vac, man-made chemicals in the environment are making children gay or transgender crowd.
