{"id":4704,"date":"2025-01-09T23:07:28","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T23:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/meet-ken-nahigian-rfk-jr-s-guide-to-congress\/"},"modified":"2025-01-09T23:07:28","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T23:07:28","slug":"meet-ken-nahigian-rfk-jr-s-guide-to-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/meet-ken-nahigian-rfk-jr-s-guide-to-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Ken Nahigian, RFK Jr.\u2019s guide to Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump\u2019s controversial pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has an experienced guide to shepherd him to confirmation in the Senate.<\/p>\n

Ken Nahigian, who led the Trump transition in 2017, is Kennedy\u2019s liaison to senators, according to four people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

Nahigian knows the Senate well. He worked for the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee under then-Chairs John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). He cut his teeth in politics working advance for longtime Kansas Sen. Bob Dole\u2019s 1996 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

Nahigian is currently executive vice president for policy and communications at the communications shop Nahigian Strategies.<\/p>\n

After working on Trump\u2019s transition in 2017, he and his firm secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal consulting contracts through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He once lobbied for health care interests, including the Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals and the Coalition for Access Now, which promotes cannabidiol, a marijuana derivative, for medical purposes.<\/p>\n

Nahigian is working with Katie Miller, who was then-Vice President Mike Pence\u2019s communications director and is married to Trump adviser Stephen Miller. She is handling the communications around Kennedy\u2019s confirmation process.<\/p>\n

Nahigian declined to comment. He and his brother Keith have run Nahigian Strategies since 2007, and both have done stints for GOP campaigns.<\/p>\n

Kennedy spent Wednesday and Thursday on Capitol Hill, attempting to win the votes of Senate Republicans and Democrats who will decide whether he leads HHS.<\/p>\n

House Democrats, the Democratic governor of Hawaii, and progressive groups are urging a no vote<\/a>. On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Health Care, a physicians\u2019 advocacy group, released an open letter<\/a> signed by more than 15,000 doctors calling Kennedy, who has long questioned public health consensus about the importance of vaccination, \u201cdangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans have mostly backed Kennedy and he can win confirmation if 50 of the 53 GOP senators vote for him.<\/p>\n

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who sits on the Finance Committee, which will likely hold a confirmation hearing in the coming weeks, said he would vote to confirm.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not anti-vaccine,\u201d Cornyn said. \u201cHe is pro-vaccine safety, which strikes me as a rational position to take.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, a longtime advocate of farm interests, told reporters Kennedy\u2019s views on farming and food production are \u201cmuch more reasonable than I expected,\u201d despite Kennedy\u2019s past criticism of genetically modified plants and pesticides.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reports I read didn\u2019t reflect what he actually believes and how he will act in those areas,\u201d Grassley said.<\/p>\n

Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman of Arkansas also said he had a \u201cgood meeting\u201d with Kennedy during which they spoke about Kennedy\u2019s views on pesticides.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the kind of talk I like to hear,\u201d Boozman said.<\/p>\n

Boozman added that Kennedy would merely try to discourage consumption of ultra-processed foods, not seek to ban ingredients or manufacturing processes.<\/p>\n

Boozman said he\u2019d wait until Kennedy\u2019s confirmation hearing to say if he\u2019ll vote for him.<\/p>\n

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who leads the committee that oversees HHS, said he had a \u201cfrank\u201d discussion with Kennedy Wednesday, offering a more tepid assessment<\/a> than some of his fellow Republicans.<\/p>\n

Democratic senators who sat down with Kennedy, including Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, wouldn\u2019t comment after meeting with him.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) deflected on whether he would vote to confirm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely believe in vaccinations,\u201d Fetterman said. \u201cI would never argue against [vaccines].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump\u2019s controversial pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has an experienced guide to shepherd him to confirmation in the Senate. Ken Nahigian, who led the Trump transition in 2017, is Kennedy\u2019s liaison to senators, according to four people familiar with the matter. Nahigian knows the Senate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}