Before Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined the camp of President Donald Trump, he was running a campaign for president. Could he return to the campaign trail in 2028?
While Kennedy’s “estranged” cousin, Jack Schlossberg, told the New York Post in March that his uncle is “definitely” running for president in 2028, Kennedy has denied it multiple times. Last August, he called rumors that he planned to run a “flat-out lie,” in an X post. Earlier this month, the told the Kaiser Family Foundation that he’s not running, CBS News said.
Kennedy is from the famous Kennedy family – he’s the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and his father, Robert F. Kennedy Sr., was assassinated while running for president in 1968. During his own presidential campaign, RFK Jr. switched from being a Democrat to an independent and he faced the challenge of merely getting his name on ballots before he made the surprising move to support Trump, a Republican.
Prior to his presidential run, Kennedy became known for his controversial vaccine-skeptic stance, something that he has maintained in his role leading the HHS. While he has a “Make America Healthy Again” or MAHA group of supporters, his views have garnered criticism from Democrats, some Republicans and his own family.
Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, his cousin, called RFK Jr. a “predator” with “dangerous views” in a letter to senators.
Poll results published this month by the KFF showed that about four in ten (41%) U.S. adults say they support the MAHA movement. It also found that some of the key issues MAHA addresses, such as regulation of chemical additives in food, appeal to even broader groups of U.S. adults. KFF polling from April found that Kennedy is popular within MAHA and Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement but with “few others.”
CBS News noted that Kennedy is now “caught between his Make America Healthy Again supporters who want him to do more to advance their priorities, including curtailing vaccines, and a White House trying to combat President Trump’s unpopularity,” amid inflation and continuing geopolitical conflicts. It also noted that Trump nominated Erica Schwartz, a vaccine supporter, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month.
Previously, Kennedy fired the agency’s former director, Susan Monarez. She testified she was ousted for not preapproving vaccine recommendations, CBS said. According to the outlet, there is now a “widening schism between the White House and Kennedy's anti-vaccine crusade.”
Now, Kennedy is expected to travel around the nation to stump for GOP lawmakers, the outlet added. He’s going to states with competitive races in the midterm elections coming up in November.
“The goal of Kennedy's campaign appearances is to shore up support for Republican candidates,” said CBS. “But his targeted presence underscores the increasingly intense push and pull Kennedy faces as he works to maintain enduring political viability with GOP voters – especially MAHA supporters.”
Even as Kennedy denies plans to run in 2028, CBS said some people in the MAHA camp wish that he would. He would be up against other contenders from the Trump administration, including current frontrunner Vice President JD Vance as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Trump has even refused to rule out running again himself, though that would be prohibited by the 22nd Amendment.
Currently, betting markets Kalshi and Polymarket have Vance at the head of the pack of potential GOP candidates. Kennedy is far down on Polymarket’s list (below reality TV star Kim Kardashian) and on Kalshi’s list.
Still, Christopher Bosso, a public policy and political science professor at Northeastern University cited by CBS News, said that “running would be perfectly logical for Bobby.”
Actress Cheryl Hines, Kennedy’s wife, has told News Nation that she didn’t think her husband, an environmental lawyer, would run for president. Yet, she also added that she didn’t think the would get into politics in the first place.
