RFK Jr.’s Checkered Past Should Disqualify Him, Pence’s Group Says

Daniel Payne

01/21/2025, 5:39pm ET

Senators should reject Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the government’s health agencies because he’s an anti-vax conspiracy theorist, former heroin addict, supporter of marijuana and psychedelic drug legalization, and backer of abortion rights, a conservative group is arguing.

Advancing American Freedom, the advocacy group founded by Mike Pence, is throwing everything at the wall in a bid to convince Republican senators to stop Kennedy, a longtime Democrat whom President Donald Trump has chosen to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Any one of these controversies should be disqualifying for a potential HHS leader,” Advancing American Freedom’s president and chair of the board, Tim Chapman and Marc Short, wrote Tuesday in a letter to the 53 Republican senators who will decide whether Kennedy gets the job.

Pence, of course, served Trump as vice president before falling out with him over Pence’s refusal to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Why it matters: Kennedy has yet to receive his confirmation hearing and no vote is scheduled, but GOP senators who’ve met with him have mostly shrugged off conservatives’ concerns about him.

The Advancing American Freedom campaign tests how much sway traditional Republican arguments resonate in Trump’s GOP.

Short was Trump’s liaison to Capitol Hill during the first 18 months of his administration before going to work as Pence’s chief of staff. He has Senate experience, having served in the same role for then-Texas Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Chapman’s previous bosses include other pre-Trump Republican senators: Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Don Nickles of Oklahoma and Tim Hutchinson of Arkansas.

The letter comes after a similar plea from the group to senators last week, which focused on Kennedy’s history of backing abortion rights.

What’s next: Kennedy is expected to have a confirmation hearing in the coming weeks. Should he advance to a Senate vote, he can only afford to lose three Republicans should every member of the Democratic caucus oppose him.