Opinion - For members of Congress, MAHA isn't just great policy — it's also smart politics

Yahoo

3 days ago

Believe it: The coalition behind 'Making America Healthy Again' will play an outsized role in deciding the 2026 Congressional midterm elections in more than 500 days from now in November 2026. That's because the issues that go into MAHA close the gender gap and maintain the voter margins with young voters.
But MAHA has been years in the making, going back long before President Trump won his second term and even prior to the political accession of current Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
My organization is now prioritizing the voters in the top 50 battleground U.S. House seats and 10 U.S. Senate seats, including the open seats in New Hampshire, Michigan, and Minnesota. The voters in all of the prioritized battleground Congressional races fully support the common-sense, nonpartisan health policies about making our nation healthy again. We will be bringing them and their constituent voices to meet in person with their U.S. senators and Representatives in Washington starting next month.
U.S. senators who oppose their constituents' heartfelt, passionate support for these policies will lose in 2026. This includes making epinephrine an over-the-counter drug (something FDA Commissioner Martin Makary voiced support for in his March confirmation hearing) the elimination of taxpayer-funded sodas from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, expansion of regenerative farming, and elimination of glyphosate herbicides and other poisons in the food supply.
Conversely, senators and representatives, regardless of party, who support their constituents and the policies we work for will earn the support of their constituents on election day.
Our coalition is truly bipartisan, based on an Executive Order issued by a Republican president and implemented by a scion of the Democratic Party. This has helped my organization scale to become the fastest-growing nationwide public health advocacy coalition, which is ready to be activated in a micro-targeted deployment to battleground U.S. House and Senate races in the midterm elections.
Perhaps most importantly, leaders in Congress from both parties support our goals. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are all acutely aware of the power our coalition has now, and all four are working with us in support of their respective conferences.
Why? Because the 50 battleground House seats and 10 U.S. Senate seats will be decided by mere thousands of votes. Our coalition will be a deciding factor in many if not all of these toss-up Congressional election races.
What differentiates our organization from any other entity is our unprecedented structure and confluence with the electorate's mindset and policy priorities. We are free of the corporate groups that traditionally mete out retribution upon those who boldly do what is right. And we have secured the immediate branding of a disruptive force that enjoys trust from voters trust on the policies they care most about.
Don't take our word for it. Every congressional incumbent in a battleground district or state has met with us, and many are relying upon us and our voters to be re-elected.
In more than 30 years of working with Congress and White Houses of both Republican and Democratic political parties, I have never seen so much certainty among congressional leaders that these issues will determine their political fate and build the next congressional majority.
With 522 days to go until election day, each senator and representative working with us understands that his or her race is being won, right now, by MAHA issues and MAHA voters.
Robert K. Houton is founder of the Make America Healthy Again Coalition, is a former U.S. Senate candidate from Maryland and candidate for chair of the Democratic National Committee.
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