Politics

RFK Jr. urged Iowa Libertarian to drop out of battleground House race, challenger claims

Published

20 hours ago

June 15, 2026

A Libertarian challenger in a top Iowa battleground says Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the district’s current representative, GOP Rep. Zach Nunn, privately pressured him to drop out.

Marco Battaglia, who hopes to run for the state’s 3rd Congressional District, has faced multiple challenges from Republicans over his eligibility and was even struck from the ballot on Monday — though he plans to appeal the state election panel’s decision.

Battaglia said Nunn visited his home on June 7 to convince him to exit the race. Then, a day later, came a call from Washington — and Kennedy, allegedly, was on the other line.

Battaglia said Kennedy told him that it would be a direct blow to Kennedy, personally, if Republicans lost the seat.

“If this seat flips, it’ll make my life hell,” Kennedy said, according to Battaglia’s recollection. It’s not clear what Kennedy was referring to, but the HHS secretary could face impeachment should Democrats retake control of the House.

Battaglia shared screenshots of his call log with Blue Light News that show an incoming call from a phone number Kennedy has previously used. The call arrived at 12:44 p.m. central and lasted nearly 12 minutes. Blue Light News also reviewed screenshots of text messages Battaglia later sent to the number associated with Kennedy, which did not garner responses.

Kennedy’s office did not respond to a request for comment. In recent weeks, the secretary has stepped up his involvement in battleground races, visiting Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s 3rd District and Democratic Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s 9th District. He will appear with GOP Rep. Tom Barrett in Michigan’s 7th District on Tuesday.

Nunn’s campaign did not dispute that he visited Battaglia’s home, but adviser Annie Kuhle said in a statement that the purpose was to inform Battaglia of challenges to his signatures and invite him to cooperate with the investigation.

Kuhle said there is “strong evidence” Battaglia’s signatures were gathered “by dark-money outside groups with ties to the Democrat Party.” Nunn’s meeting with Battaglia was first reported by the Des Moines Register.

Battaglia was removed from the ballot Monday after the Iowa State Objection Panel — which adjudicates challenges to candidate eligibility — determined he was ineligible because he did not use his legal name: Mark Thomas Andersen.

Battaglia told Blue Light News he plans to appeal the decision, as his party did in 2024 when all Libertarians were removed from the ballot for not following state law in their nominating process. When that appeal failed, Battaglia and other Libertarian candidates launched write-in campaigns.

“Iowa Republicans know they can’t win on ideas, so they are resorting to their favorite tactic: suppressing voter choice,” Evan McMahon, chair of the national Libertarian Party, said in a statement. “When a third party gathers a record number of signatures and earns its place on the ballot, the answer is to debate them, not to bully them, bribe them, or sue them off the ballot.”

The 3rd District is one of Democrats’ top targets this cycle, a seat Nunn won by fewer than four points in 2024 even as Trump won the state by 13 points. State Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, the Democratic nominee, is a member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” program.

Republicans have already spent nearly $4.5 million to defend the seat, according to the political advertising tracker AdImpact. Republicans warn Battaglia’s presence on the ballot — drawing conservative votes away from Nunn — could tip a close race.

The Republican National Committee did not respond to a request for comment.

Battaglia says Nunn, during his June 7 visit to his home, offered him a deal and referenced the HHS secretary: “We’ll fly you out to D.C. and you can be my wing man,” Nunn allegedly said, per Battaglia’s recollection. “We’ll make you the poster boy for election integrity, and we’ll hang out with Robert Kennedy Jr.”

Nunn’s campaign denies the representative said any such thing. “No offer, inducement, or thing of value was ever proposed or provided in exchange for withdrawing the nomination petitions,” said Kuhle, the Nunn campaign strategist, in a statement.

A spokesperson for Nunn’s campaign, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said they “kept stakeholders, including the White House, informed of our concerns,” but they “did not ask them to take any action on our behalf, and were not aware of any actions taken until Marco informed us of the call [with Kennedy].”

Battaglia is a longtime Kennedy supporter who backed him when he launched a Democratic bid for president in 2023. Battaglia said he met Kennedy during a campaign stop in Des Moines in August 2023, when the then-Democrat spoke at a coffee shop. Battaglia said he presented Kennedy with a gift: A VHS tape of “The Second Gun,” a documentary exploring an alternate theory of Kennedy’s father’s assassination.

“He seemed to respond to it warmly,” Battaglia said. “It was a nice gift.”

Politics

DC is about to pick new leaders. Trump is watching.

Published

3 hours ago

June 16, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Washington will soon enter a new chapter after voters pick the capital’s first new mayor in a dozen years and its first new Congressional delegate since 1991. And no matter who wins Tuesday’s primaries, they’ll be on a collision course with President Donald Trump.

The frontrunners in both races have hinged their campaigns on opposition to Trump, who since returning to office has chipped away at Washington’s autonomy and sought to remake parts of the city in his image. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has led the city since taking office in 2015, has taken a pragmatic approach to working with the president in an apparent effort to avoid further furor. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has represented the District since 1991 and condemned Trump’s actions in strongly worded statements, but the 89-year-old has dodged the spotlight amid questions about her acuity and ability to serve.

The candidates running to replace them say that’s far from enough.

In interviews with Blue Light News, those leading candidates emphasized that they hoped to find common ground with the Trump administration and coordinate where possible, especially on projects that could jumpstart Washington’s sluggish economy. But they all drew a red line at Trump’s extraordinary law enforcement actions, including sending in the National Guard indefinitely and surging federal immigration agents in coordination with local police.

“Washington, D.C., residents want and deserve a mayor who’s going to stand up and fight back, and that’s what I’m bringing,” said Kenyan McDuffie, a relatively moderate, pro-business former D.C. Council member who is polling second in the mayor’s race. He has pledged to end coordination between the Metropolitan Police Department and ICE on his first day in office.

Janeese Lewis George, a D.C. council member who is polling more than 10 points ahead of McDuffie, has taken an even more adversarial posture against the president. She told Blue Light News she would “actively tell our employees to resist” if Trump again federalized the MPD, adding that she would work with D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb “to defend D.C.”

Trump is already making known his displeasure — particularly with Lewis George, a democratic socialist whose platform and campaign are reminiscent of those of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Asked last week about the possibility of Lewis George winning the primary, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office: “I wouldn’t like it.”

“Maybe we’ll take back Washington, run it on a federal basis,” he continued. “We won’t put up with it. We’re not gonna lose our businesses.”

Lewis George’s campaign almost immediately cut Trump’s comments into an ad. “Look, we’re not going to get ICE off our streets by fearing this president,” she said in response. “We’re not going to protect our rights, or Home Rule, by complying in advance. Threatening Home Rule because you don’t like how residents are voting is an attack on democracy itself. The people of D.C. elect their mayor, and they want someone who’s gonna stand up to Donald Trump.”

There’s a similar sentiment among the leading delegate candidates.

Robert White, a city council member and one of two frontrunners in the delegate race, described Trump’s surge of federal agents and National Guard troops to the city as “lawlessness” and “the opposite of public safety.” He said he would seek to build a coalition in Congress to “push back in every way.”

Brooke Pinto, a fellow council member and the other delegate frontrunner who has centered public safety in her campaign, said the administration’s use of National Guard troops and ICE agents have not helped the city. “While I am very committed to advancing public safety in the District of Columbia, what we’re seeing from the Trump administration undermines those efforts,” she said.

That type of messaging is politically savvy in a city with an electorate that heavily supported Kamala Harris in 2024 and whose lives have been directly impacted by the president’s grip over Washington — from the troop surge to his sweeping cuts to government programs and razing of the federal workforce, which have severely contracted the District’s economy. That’s not to mention his efforts to splash his name and face across federal buildings, and mounting moves to beautify portions of the city and stand up ambitious architectural projects.

“When politicians try to interfere with our local public safety, when they are sweeping up unhoused residents, cutting jobs, when they are pushing policies that negatively affect our local economy and driving up overall costs of everything from gas to housing, I’m going to fight back,” McDuffie said.

But it sets the candidates — whoever wins — in explicit opposition to Trump, who has consistently sought to bring his enemies to heel whenever he gets the chance. The president has several levers at his disposal if he chooses to retaliate against Washington, from another federal law enforcement surge to using his influence over Congress to weaken D.C. Home Rule. The city also depends on the federal government for high-profile projects that would improve public spaces and bring jobs to the District, including upgrades to Union Station and the redevelopment of the RFK Stadium campus.

Asked how the White House is preparing for a potentially more adversarial mayor and delegate, a spokesperson referred Blue Light News back to Trump’s Oval Office comments.

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