NYT Columnist Argues Medical Candidates Could Undermine RFK Jr.'s MAHA Movement

A NYT opinion columnist argues physician-candidates running as Democrats could deal a serious blow to RFK Jr.'s MAHA health movement.

Polling consistently showed voters trusted Democrats over Republicans on health policy even as RFK Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again movement gained national attention — and now a slate of medical professionals on the ballot could test that dynamic directly. In a Saturday New York Times column, opinion writer Jessica Grose argued that MAHA's most formidable opponents are emerging from the medical community itself, not from political operatives. She pointed to three candidates in particular: Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician running as the Democratic Senate nominee in South Carolina; Dr. Amy Acton, Ohio's former health director now seeking the governorship; and Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist running for a Senate seat in Michigan. Grose contended that MAHA's rise was built substantially on savvy branding and alliances with wellness influencers who she said spent years spreading health misinformation. She argued the movement never genuinely represented the majority of Americans who care about health, citing Reuters/Ipsos polling ahead of the 2022 midterms and KFF survey data before the 2024 election showing consistent voter preference for Democrats on health issues. Signs of internal strain are also appearing within the movement. Calley Means, identified as a former senior adviser to Kennedy, is among the MAHA loyalists mentioned as the coalition shows fractures. The source material cuts off before fully detailing the nature of those internal developments. The column frames the upcoming elections as a potential inflection point: if credentialed medical professionals running on mainstream public health platforms win competitive races, Grose suggests it would signal that the MAHA brand's political potency has real limits.

Why it matters

If physician-candidates succeed in competitive statewide races, the results could reshape how both parties approach health messaging ahead of future elections. The MAHA movement has influenced federal health policy through Kennedy's role as HHS secretary, making its political durability a question with real policy consequences.

What's next

Results from Tuesday's elections — including Andrews' Senate race in South Carolina, Acton's gubernatorial bid in Ohio, and El-Sayed's Senate contest in Michigan — will offer the first electoral test of whether medical credentials and mainstream public health platforms can counter MAHA's political brand.

Key facts

Bias & framing notes

This story is sourced entirely from a single opinion column in the New York Times, not a news report. Grose's piece is explicitly argumentative — framing MAHA as 'crumbling' and its medical opponents as its 'most dangerous foes' — language that reflects her editorial stance, not established fact. No reporting from outlets sympathetic to MAHA or from MAHA representatives themselves is included, so the movement's own framing of its trajectory is entirely absent. The Raw Story headline amplifies the column's most dramatic claims without flagging that the source is opinion journalism.

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