> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.importantcontext.news/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # MAHA’s Future Uncertain Following Midterm Blowout and Kennedy “Betrayal” - URL: https://www.importantcontext.news/mahas-future-uncertain-following-midterm-blowout-and-kennedy-betrayal/ - Published: 2026-11-06T18:48:08.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-07T15:40:34.000Z - Description: Robert Kennedy Jr. hemorrhages MAHA support from inside and outside of HHS. - Author: Walker Bragman - Tags: Trump Administration *This piece has been updated from its original email version.* Robert Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement, which brought the world of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, New Age wellness, and pandemic grievances under the umbrella of the political right, was instrumental in securing Donald Trump’s 2024 victory. Just two years later, however, experts say its future looks bleak. On Tuesday, the Republican Party suffered historic losses in the midterm elections. Among the casualties were [24 MAHA candidates](https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/midterm-election-results-2026-latest-updates/card/a-bad-night-for-maha-candidates-fXG92OA0k69rVJ9x7C0v?st=rsjtjR&reflink=article%5FcopyURL%5Fshare&ref=importantcontext.news). Meanwhile, a [new class](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/nov/05/midterms-science-doctors-maha?CMP=us%5Fbsky&utm%5Fmedium=Social&utm%5Fsource=Bluesky#Echobox=1793888343) of healthcare workers and scientists won elections as Democrats openly running against Kennedy’s agenda. “MAHA is falling to pieces,” declared Colette Delawalla, founder of Stand Up for Science, an anti-Kennedy, pro-science advocacy group. “The base is fractured, trust is worn away. You've got \[actor Russell\] Brand—the celebrity face of MAHA—about to go to prison for rape. RFK Jr. is on the impeachment chopping block. The grift is about to be unearthed in 100 ways to Sunday.” The midterm MAHA blowout comes as the movement splinters. Last month, Calley Means, a longtime ally of Kennedy’s, [announced his departure](https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/calley-means-a-top-rfk-jr-adviser-quits-trump-administration-3fc58fa3?utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=bluesky&utm%5Fcampaign=test) from HHS. Means explained that his exit stemmed from frustration over the sluggishness of the department to address his concerns over food safety. His exit followed a slew of departures of other MAHA faithful, including FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary and senior regulators Dr. Vinay Prasad and Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg. Several Kennedy-aligned hires at NIH also quietly departed after brief tenures, and there has recently been [speculation](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/white-house-chaos-leaks-aides-090856069.html?ref=importantcontext.news) about the future of the agency’s director and Kennedy ally, Jay Bhattacharya. While Kennedy is seemingly losing the reins within his administration, some of the MAHA base is in revolt outside of it over his inability to fully enact the platform he promised. Early last month, Tiffany Cianci, a former Kennedy campaign advisor, put out a [press release](https://www.mahascorecard.com/press?ref=importantcontext.news) about her “MAHA Scorecard” about the secretary’s performance atop HHS. The scorecard rated 37 of 42 promises broken and none kept, exposing “an abysmal string of broken commitments and betrayals.” Meanwhile, Focal Points, the Substack of anti-vax former cardiologist Peter McCullough, who is the chief medical officer of the MAHA-aligned supplement outfit, The Wellness Company, published a [piece](https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/should-hhs-secretary-kennedy-resign?ref=importantcontext.news) suggesting that Kennedy ought to stand on principle and resign from his post to protest the continued use of mRNA vaccines. The previous month, a group of prolific anti-vaccine activists sent a letter to Kennedy demanding that he ban the mRNA vaccines in the U.S. or lose the support of their movement. The mRNA COVID vaccines have saved millions of lives and won the scientists behind them the Nobel Prize. Now, the platform is being used to develop vaccines against certain cancers. The threatening letter, which was cosigned by former MAGA Congresswoman Majorie Taylor Greene, outgoing Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, among others, warned that “Health freedom voters can and will walk away if we continue to see inaction—or condescending non-policy—on our core issues.” The letter was organized by Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a Houston-based anti-vaccine otolaryngologist, and published by the group she founded, Americans for Health Freedom. Bowden, who was [reprimanded](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/health/article/texas-medical-board-bowden-reprimand-21106590.php?ref=importantcontext.news) last year by the Texas Medical Board, is a fellow at the [Independent Medical Alliance](https://www.importantcontext.news/pro-ivermectin-anti-vax-group-positioned/), a pseudoscience dark money group that pushed for Kennedy’s Senate confirmation. The letter is not her first time challenging Kennedy or the administration. She was a sharp critic of Trump’s previous surgeon general nominee, Casey Means, arguing that she was too soft on vaccines. More recently, she got into a spat on X with Michael Caputo, a new appointee to the President’s Cancer Panel who was previously involved in Operation Warp Speed—the effort under the first Trump administration that brought the Covid mRNA vaccines quickly to market. The response from Kennedy allies to growing unrest in the anti-vaccine world has been to ignore or counterattack. The MAHA Report Substack, which bills itself as “the flagship publication of MAHA Action Inc.,” the anti-vax operation run by Kennedy ally Tony Lyons, suggested that Bowden’s letter was a “[psyop](https://www.themahareport.com/p/the-open-letter-to-maha-is-that-the?ref=importantcontext.news).” Observers have long suggested that the alliance between anti-vaxxers and other New Age wellness adherents and the deregulatory Trump administration was bound to fracture. Derek Beres, who hosts the *Conspirituality* podcast that covers New Age anti-science figures, noted that “MAHA has always been a loose coalition…built by influencers, businesspeople, and conspiracy theorists with competing interests.” [Polling](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/06/poll-maha-beliefs-rfk-trump-00856922?ref=importantcontext.news) has shown that the movement is a big tent, encompassing a number of conspiracy theories and views on issues like food safety. “Kennedy was only allowed into an administration governed by the deregulatory ethos of Project 2025 provided he followed their rules, which he has,” explained Beres. “He’s served corporate interests far more than American citizens, and his base has watched it unfold in real-time.” Indeed, while Kennedy’s ascension to the top of HHS was celebrated by the so-called “Medical Freedom” movement—as were the appointments of his allies to key department positions—it was not long before MAHA faithful found themselves running up against the realities of politics and the conservative movement’s traditional base: [industry](https://www.importantcontext.news/vinay-prasad-out-at-fda-amid-right/). Kennedy himself has had to adapt to survive the churning waters—and the backlash started early. Last March, *Important Context* reported on anti-vaxxers expressing their [disillusionment](https://www.importantcontext.news/imposter-anti-vaxxers-fume-over-kennedy/) after he promoted measles vaccines in an op-ed following the death of an unvaccinated child amid the outbreak in Texas. More recently, he came under fire for [backing](https://apnews.com/article/maha-glyphosate-rfk-kennedy-trump-pesticides-3d23d4771dba743a976543ca6cfa69d9?ref=importantcontext.news) an executive order from Trump to boost production of glyphosate, an herbicide he has long insisted causes cancer. While Makary, Prasad, and Høeg spearheaded an effort to make mRNA vaccines less available to the general public, the CDC recently walked back those efforts, recommending COVID vaccines to all adults and immunocompromised children ages 6 months or older. With the GOP’s midterm blowout, and Trump and his party a diminished vehicle for power, the sustainability of the MAHA alliance is in question. Kennedy may have difficulty keeping it together, Beres noted, explaining that the secretary “never had the following or charisma of Trump” and “was doomed to fail from the outset—not because of external forces (as MAHA leaders claim) but because his activism conflicts with the administration’s agenda.” “Courting fringe anti-vaxxers was always going to end up poorly for Kennedy,” Beres said. “As much as he’s damaged public health in America, there was no way he was going to overturn generations of evidence of vaccine efficacy. He promised a rabid base rapid results, didn’t deliver, and is paying the price.” On Wednesday, Bowden polled her supporters about what should happen with MAHA in the wake of the midterm blowout. The options she offered were: join the Democrats, form a new party, or “overthrow the GOP.” Other MAHA leaders have also flirted with [working](https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/midterm-election-results-2026-latest-updates/card/maha-leaders-we-d-like-to-work-with-democrats-NUdYiNh8hdOVSs10pisj?ref=importantcontext.news) with the Democrats. Delawalla said that the Democratic Party is “the natural landing spot for the victims of the MAHA grifters,” noting that “many were rented voters from the Dems anyway.” But for the movement’s leaders, she was less welcoming. “They are grifters and must be held accountable for the damage and harm they have caused,” she said. ## Sign up for Important Context Independent investigative journalism. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.