Politics

‘He’s not a manager’: Former RFK Jr. staffers on how he’d run HHS

Published

2 years ago

November 28, 2024

If Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gets confirmed as secretary for President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services, it will be the biggest job he’s ever had.

And some of his former campaign staffers question whether he’s up for the challenge.

Kennedy, who comes from one of the most high-profile families in Democratic politics, has held leadership roles as a lawyer and at nonprofit organizations but has more often been the public face of these operations than an executive manager. His presidential campaign was similarly run with Kennedy not closely involved in its daily management, according to interviews with a half dozen former campaign staffers.

“He’s an inspirational leader who’s able to communicate. But he’s not a manager,” said Jeff Hutt, spokesperson for the Make America Healthy Again political action committee and Kennedy’s former national field director.

Kennedy’s campaign — his last professional endeavor — was suspended before anyone could cast a ballot for him and left him with $4.5 million in debt.

“I have no idea how he’s going to run a full department, if that’s how he ran the campaign,” said one former campaign staffer granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. “Running a court case and suing folks is a lot different than running a business. I think he’s a fantastic lawyer. I think he does his due diligence and understands law and truly wants to help all people.”

Kennedy has touted his experience as an environmental advocate and litigator as qualification for the role, but Kennedy has never run such a large team. The Department of Health and Human Services oversees 13 sub-agencies and has a budget of well over $1 trillion and more than 80,000 employees.

And Trump, who reportedly considered giving Kennedy a role in his first administration, has also handed down a gargantuan mandate, saying that HHS “will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country,” in a statement announcing Kennedy as his pick.

Such work will involve battling a large bureaucracy, but Kennedy’s campaign was the opposite. By the end, a small circle of friends and family members became the core of his campaign team.

“The campaign was a handful of people that were actual professionals, and a bunch of folks that Bobby’s met along the health freedom journey,” said another former staffer.

This caused conflicts on the team and made the campaign slow to respond to negative press. It also held back the campaign’s operations, including in fundraising.

“I technically think that we could have raised an additional $50 to 75 million from what he raised,” said Dave Murphy, who was the finance director on the campaign. “We should have had exponential growth, and that didn’t happen. And I just think that every campaign and leaders succeed or fail based on the leadership around them, the people that are close to them, and I think there were some people that didn’t understand the vision of what a presidential campaign [and that it] actually needs to bring money in the door to make it credible.”

The campaign ultimately raised about $62 million, but more than $15 million of that sum came from Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, who is independently wealthy.

Former staffers say that Kennedy will be an excellent spokesperson and face of the MAHA mission, which pledges to take on chronic disease through “prioritizing regenerative agriculture, preserving natural habitats, and eliminating toxins from our food, water, and air.”

The emphasis on him as a public face is not dissimilar to the role he played in the successful lawsuit against Monsanto, a chemical company that owns the weed killer Roundup, and as a board chair of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit from which he is currently on leave.

“He was basically our press secretary and spokesperson, and so that was really helpful. And when we got the verdict, he was the one who helped us organize,” Brent Wisner, who was an attorney on the Monsanto case, said this summer during an interview about Kennedy’s role on the Monsanto case.

Wisner added that Kennedy was also an asset in talking with the press throughout the trial and was especially useful when it came to the pre-trial discovery and research phase, where he found instances of the regulatory agencies deference to industry at the expense of health outcomes.

Kennedy’s later litigation and books focused on vaccine safety ostracized him from some in the environmental movement and eventually the Democratic Party when he ran for president. But Kennedy’s former staffers said that he has the skills to rebuild bridges and forge relationships necessary to accomplish things in Washington.

“He is a very genuine person. He listens and he’s, you know, he likes to find the best answers available,” said a former senior staffer. “And as he’s said publicly, you know, if you can show him where he’s wrong on something, he will change his mind.”

This senior staffer also said he doesn’t believe Kennedy will immediately “purge” the department of staffers, as some in Trump’s orbit have pledged to, and that his former boss has a “cooler [tempered] approach.”

But some former staffer said that good intentions and an aptitude for relationship building aren’t enough to cover leadership skills.

“He’s going to need a good deputy,” said Hutt, who worked on the PAC supporting Kennedy.“I don’t know who he has in mind, but I would hope that he would go outside of his campaign [staffers] for this position.”

Politics

Iowa’s last Democrat on how he can win in Trump country

Published

4 hours ago

August 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Iowa’s last Democrat on how he can win in Trump country

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Politics

The other Dan Sullivan makes November ballot against Sen. Dan Sullivan

Published

13 hours ago

August 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Alaska GOP Sen. Dan S. Sullivan can’t shake his same-name challenger.

Retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan punched a ticket out of the state’s top-four, all-party primary early Wednesday morning. He could now play spoiler in a high-stakes Senate clash between the Republican senator and former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola that could help swing control of the upper chamber.

Republicans fought and failed to keep Dan J. Sullivan off the primary ballot, arguing he was a Democratic plant designed to boost Peltola. Both Dan J. Sullivan and Peltola’s campaign have denied any coordination.

The senator’s allies have already taken steps to mitigate the second Sullivan’s potential vote siphoning, in some cases running ads using the senator’s middle initial to help differentiate between the same-named candidates.

Supporters of the state’s ranked-choice voting system, which kicks in for the general election, argue the process helps curtail the spoiler effect. But the presence of other candidates could still skew the results of the battleground race. Outside groups flooded the primary with more than $2 million to boost myriad fringe candidates — and could do so again ahead of November.

It’s not smooth sailing for Peltola, either, as she wages an uphill battle to flip a red seat in a state President Donald Trump won by 13 percentage points in 2024. She recently replaced her campaign manager in a staffing shakeup ahead of the primary, among other internal moves.

Politics

‘It’s put up or shut up time’: Battleground Republicans want the Darline treatment

Published

13 hours ago

August 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump notched a major win on Tuesday night. Republicans in battlegrounds wonder if it was the best use of his time and money.

Sen. Darline Graham defeated Rep. Ralph Norman in South Carolina’s snap Senate GOP runoff, handing Trump a revitalizing win after several of his endorsed candidates fell in recent primaries.

It was a victory that Graham, a complete political unknown six weeks ago, could not have pulled off without Trump’s steadfast support, underscoring just how much his influence still matters among the Republican electorate in the deeply conservative state.

But South Carolina’s Senate seat will not dictate the balance of power in Washington, and GOP strategists working on critical swing state campaigns are eager for Trump to finally direct his attention to them.

“The message coming out of this is that obviously the president’s support is still super powerful. The president’s operation still has the ability to move the needle in a lot of these states,” said a Republican strategist working on several battleground races, including in Georgia, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about Trump’s involvement. “Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come that the president is willing to get involved and really start to move the needle in some other places that obviously matter a little bit more than South Carolina.”

Trump’s persistent backing of Graham defined the race: He championed her appointment to her late brother Sen. Lindsey Graham’s seat, he coaxed her into the race with an early endorsement, stood by her as she stumbled on the debate stage, and flew down to Myrtle Beach for a rare political rally that few of his chosen candidates have enjoyed this cycle. MAGA Inc., Trump’s behemoth super PAC, even spent a slice of highly sought after cash from its $400 million stockpile in the closing days of the race.

And yet, the president hasn’t taken a meaningful step into the states that will matter in a few short months — even as battleground Republicans have been clamoring for him to spend his MAGA Inc. money.

“It’s now or never. It’s put up or shut up time, and it’s really time to start to see if he’s going to get serious,” the GOP strategist said. “You’ve got September and October to really move the needle here, and it just doesn’t seem like there’s any sense of urgency, or like we understand that we are down big in some of these states.”

During her victory speech in Columbia, Graham acknowledged Trump’s heavy hand: “Our victory would not have been possible without you, and we are truly grateful,” Graham said of the president. “South Carolina is truly Trump country.”

Norman’s take on the president’s participation was not as rosy: “The president got involved. He has that right. That’s his prerogative,” Norman said in his concession speech Tuesday, prompting jeers from the crowd at his election night watch party. “Y’all,” he continued, “his policies are good. I never understood why he got in this race. It is what it is, and I’ll accept it.”

Norman’s bewilderment reflected several national and South Carolina Republicans’ confusion as to why the president would expend energy for the safe Republican seat when his MAGA allies like Mike Collins in Georgia, scandal-plagued Ken Paxton in Texas and Michael Whatley in North Carolina are facing tough Senate battles against Democratic opponents.

“There’s the principle,” said a North Carolina-based GOP strategist who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the battleground picture. “If you’re not Trump and you have these people shoved down your throat, you’re like, ‘Okay, are you gonna help?’”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some Republicans are worried that though Trump helped power Graham’s win, the president’s overall unpopularity may be more of a curse than a boon in any highly competitive battleground state. A series of Trump-backed candidates lost gubernatorial and congressional primaries in recent weeks, including in Georgia and Iowa.

Republicans overall are facing a tough election environment given the ongoing and unpopular war in Iran, backlash to the administration’s highly-visible deportation agenda and voters’ persistent cost of living concerns.

“You have a president and maybe even a vice president that are just so underwater politically in the polls, that they might be a help by not intervening,” said Matthew Bartlett, a GOP strategist and former State Department official in the first Trump administration.

Still, Trump swept the battlegrounds in 2024, and his ability to boost Graham despite her foreign policy debate gaffe and questions about her political inexperience serves as a reminder of his electoral prowess to campaign officials.

The question remains when — or if — he’ll throw them a presidential life raft.

“I wouldn’t count on the money if I were in these states,” said the North Carolina-based Republican strategist. “He still could. I’m just saying, I wouldn’t count on it. We’re not dealing with somebody that’s, you know, super calculated in the way they plan.”

For months, Republicans across the country have watched on as the president has continued to amass a remarkable pile of cash — and many have implored him to empty his pockets in their races. The president told reporters last week that he’ll spend “a lot of that money” to boost “Republican candidates that I think are good,” without being specific.

However, what some saw as a distraction from the greater Republican cause this year, others read as the first few drops of Trump’s cash flood.

“If they’re going to spend 800 grand in South Carolina, they’re going to spend in the midterms,” said Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist based in Texas who worked on Sen. John Cornyn’s failed reelection campaign and is now backing the GOP ticket. “It signals they’re going to make a substantial investment in the midterms because you don’t make an 800-grand investment in South Carolina and say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to let everybody do their own thing.’ This was in some ways a test case.”

Trump’s targeted support for Graham — the kind that some Republicans are banking on to shift the dial later this fall — paid off for her in dividends on election night. Horry County, the site of the president’s marquee rally with the candidate late last week, resoundingly broke for Graham.

Trump’s backing also helped open the door to endorsements from key South Carolina Republican figures, including fellow GOP Sen. Tim Scott, who helped Graham shore up support in his Charleston-area home base, Gov. Henry McMaster, and two members of the state’s congressional delegation, Reps. Russell Fry and William Timmons.

Outside spending also proved crucial to Graham’s success. Her campaign and its allies outspent Norman by more than $5 million in the runoff alone, according to AdImpact.

Trump’s allies took a victory lap after Graham’s victory was confirmed Tuesday evening.

“The power of the Trump endorsement is alive and well in South Carolina,” said Mike Hahn, a GOP strategist involved in the midterms. “A good opening salvo for the team at MAGA Inc. and the president ahead of the midterms.”