As Democrats blew away their Republican rivals in an unprecedented midterm sweep Tuesday, the Make America Health Again movement also got bowled over, raising questions about the fate of the motley movement.
MAHA—which has centered around anti-vaccine activist and current Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—saw many of its favored candidates and allies lose, while vocal adversaries of Kennedy won. And the coalition was splintering under stress even before the voting started; in recent months, supporters have accused Kennedy and the Trump administration of inaction and betrayals in their two years in power.
Now hobbled in Washington, shedding supporters, and showing little to no influence in voting booths, is MAHA on its deathbed? Or will it be reborn—possibly into a new group? Could it be assimilated into a blue platform—after sloughing off the more repulsive, conspiratorial aspects of Kennedy’s ideology? These are the questions circling in the aftermath of Tuesday’s bloodbath.
In a social media poll Wednesday afternoon , Mary Talley Bowden—a dejected MAHA activist, anti-vaccine advocate, and doctor reprimanded for prescribing ivermectin to treat COVID-19 —polled her followers about what should come next. She offered three options: Start a third party, join the Democrats, or overthrow the GOP. As of publication time, joining Democrats trailed at just 3 percent of the votes. The remaining votes were roughly split between overthrowing the GOP—whatever that means—and forming a third party, which had a small lead at 49 percent.
That MAHA could fade out entirely or fracture into negligible shards seems like a very real possibility. Its collection of disperate groups and varied agenda items has always made its cohesiveness seem tenuous. A Politico poll in June revealed that people who identified as MAHA had different ideas of what the movement’s priorities are (or should be), as well as different political leanings, and sometimes opposing ideologies.
