Our most recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. In 2024, RFK Jr. initially looked as if he might be a consequential independent candidate. But after Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, his support collapsed. He pulled out and endorsed Trump, who is nominating him to head HHS.
RFK Jr. will probably win confirmation on a party-line vote. But if he doesn't, his downfall could result from a coalition of vaccine supporters, Republicans who oppose his stance on abortion and regulation, and farm-state senators who object to his plan to stop high-fructose corn syrup.
Ever since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was picked by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, he has been vocal about his plans to "Make America Healthy Again."
Kennedy has vowed to crack down on dyes in the food industry and to reduce pesticides in the farm and agriculture industry.
He has called for restrictions on ultra-processed foods as part of an initiative to address the high rates of chronic disease in the United States, and he's said more research needs to be conducted on vaccines.
"I think where you would see the challenges would be on allocation of money," Shana Gadarian, a professor of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in New York, told ABC News.
"If all of a sudden HHS is now in the business of passing more regulations on the food industry, on agriculture, we might see that a Republican Senate majority and a Republican House is less interested in allocating a budget to HHS that then would be under a different leadership," she continued.
