Democratic-aligned health care advocacy groups are putting together a strategy to fight Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to be HHS secretary.
During an organizing call on Monday, the details of which have not been reported publicly, more than 200 people from several dozen of those groups, along with other advocacy organizations, discussed strategies to oppose Kennedy’s nomination. That included which Republican senators to target and the most effective way to talk to them, according to Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care.
“We’re nowhere near conceding he’s going to be the next HHS secretary,” he said.
On the call, Woodhouse’s organization launched a new “Stop RFK War Room” effort focused on persuading not only GOP moderates like Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, but others like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who survived polio, or Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who is up for reelection in 2026. Normally, the group would be prioritizing its lame duck work, but it sees Kennedy as such a serious threat that it’s starting now and delaying its lame duck work until after Thanksgiving, Woodhouse said.
Protect Our Care is hiring teams in several states, including Alaska, Idaho, Maine and West Virginia, to lobby senators at the state and local level through experts and personal stories, with events slated to begin as soon as next week.
Woodhouse acknowledged that while some of Kennedy’s ideas might have broader support — like his efforts to ban certain food additives — his views on vaccines and his plans to cut the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration are “too dangerous” to take his nomination laying down.
“Just because Hannibal Lecter has a couple good ideas on something, doesn’t mean I want to invite Hannibal Lecter to dinner,” he said.