And how “clean food and water” went from a progressive cause to Republican rallying cry.
Kiera Butler, Mother Jones, September 12, 2024
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/09/rfk-jr-s-buddy-explains-why-formerly-lefty-moms-are-flocking-to-trum
Even though Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ended his presidential bid in August, he appears to be as busy as ever—but now, on the campaign trail for former President Donald Trump, where he’s modified the MAGA slogan to MAHA: Make America Healthy Again.
Trump has picked up some of Kennedy’s favorite lines, as well:
At a recent event, where Kennedy was a featured speaker, Trump bemoaned the epidemic of chronic illness in the United States, which Kennedy long has said he believes is caused by vaccines, toxins in food, and overreliance on medication.
Kennedy would be included in a presidential panel, Trump promised supporters, that would focus on “the decades-long increase in chronic health problems, including autoimmune disorders, autism, obesity, infertility and many more.”
By adopting these talking points and embracing the failed third-party candidate, Trump is making a bid for a much-coveted group of crossover voters.
Over his years as an environmental activist and then an anti-vaccine crusader, Kennedy has built up a vast network of allies in the political gray zone where far-left natural health enthusiasts meet libertarian-leaning independents and Republicans who rail against government overreach.
In a race that is predicted to be won on razor-thin margins, Trump needs all the voters from that left-meets-right zone that he can get.
Kennedy is expected to woo a small but meaningful number of them to team Trump—especially if he succeeds in getting his name removed from the ballots in the two swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin.
One emissary from this political gray area is Zen Honeycutt, the founder and executive director of the anti-GMO organization Moms Across America.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Mother Jones this week, Honeycutt described her years of work with Kennedy, and what she sees as a sea change in the political leanings of her group’s core followers in the 13 years since she founded Moms Across America.
A decade ago, the group attracted a predominantly left-leaning audience who were concerned mostly about toxins in food and what they saw as the dangerous unknowns of genetically modified organisms.
But now, the group appeals to many Independents and Republicans who worry more about government overreach.
Honeycutt is the only full-time employee of Moms Across America, and she’s joined by three part-time staffers.
The group’s budget is tiny; in 2022, the last year for which financial information was available, it was around $238,000.
But, the group has a robust presence on social media.
Over the past seven years, she says, its posts, on subjects ranging from traces of weedkiller in pasta to Honeycutt’s recent meet-and-greet with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, have received 87 million impressions.
But more important than her budget is access; Honeycutt has worked closely with Kennedy and continues to do so, and he serves as an advisor of her organization.
She is well-positioned to influence policies and programs that he’d champion should he be given the cabinet position Trump has suggested might be a good fit.
“A dream come true,” Honeycutt says, “for most of the moms I know out there, a lot of the parents and people who just care about their health.”
Those moms are one group that Benji Backer, a climate activist who founded the right-of-center environmental advocacy group American Conservation Coalition, has run into recently.
Backer, who is currently on tour with his new book, The Conservative Environmentalist:
Common Sense Solutions for a Sustainable Future, said that at his book-signing events, he has encountered “a surprising amount of these kind of RFK Jr.-supporting previously-liberal, now-voting-for-Trump people in the audience.”
Those people used to be just “a different wing of the left-wing,” he said. “And they’re almost all shifting to the right now.”