Republican voters in Iowa would like to see vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy Jr. tasked with regulating American drugs or leading the country’s public health efforts, despite running as the Democratic nominee for president, according to an exclusive new poll.
RFK Jr. is known for spreading debunked theories about vaccines and outlandish notions about viruses.
But a poll of 600 Iowa Republicans likely to play a role in picking the 2024 GOP nominee found his attack on the healthcare establishment is gaining traction.
They supported the idea of putting him in charge of the Centers for Disease Control or the Food and Drug Administration by a majority of almost three to one.
About 48 percent supported the proposal made by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last month as part of his presidential candidacy. Only 17 percent said they were against it.
JL Partners interviewed 600 likely Republican caucus attendees in Iowa August 1-7. The results show an error rate of +/- four percent
Robert J. Kennedy Jr. is about 15 percent in the polls in the Democratic primary. But his attack on the health-care establishment has won him admirers on the right-wing of the Republican Party
It shows how RFK Jr.’s sweeping campaign has drawn in Republicans who want their nominee to stand up to a scientific consensus they believe has failed during the pandemic.
His name also crops up in discussions about choosing a vice president.
About 40 percent of respondents said he could be a good candidate for the eventual Republican nominee, including half of those who said they supported former President Donald Trump.
But opinions are more divided than putting him at the helm of a public health agency. About 29 percent said they opposed putting him on the Republican nomination for 2024.
James Johnson, co-founder of JL Partners, which conducted the survey for , said: “RFK may not appeal to the Democrats, but he’s definitely pushing the right Republican buttons.”
“Although controversial as a GOPVP choice, he is considered an attractive candidate for the FDA or CDC.”
“It’s not the sort of thing that would have a huge impact on voters either way, but it does show that DeSantis’ comments had less contact with his constituents than some Republican speakers would have suggested.”
His promotion of theories circulating on the darkest fringes of the internet alarms health experts and centrist candidates.
But DeSantis appeared to offer him a job during an interview with OutKick’s Clay Travis, who asked him about Kennedy as a possible vice president.
Republican voters are more divided on whether RFK Jr. would make a good pick for vice president
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, here Friday in Atlantic, Iowa, floated the idea that Kennedy could have a health care role under his administration during an interview last month
The focus shifts to Iowa this week as candidates flock to the state fair. Former Vice President Mike Pence poses for selfies with his wife Karen
He dismissed that idea, noting that Kennedy disagreed with many Republicans on issues such as climate change.
“If you’re president, then register him with the FDA when he would be willing to serve, or register him with the CDC,” he said.
The idea was quickly condemned by other Republicans in the race. Former Vice President Mike Pence said “pro-lifers” would not get such roles if he won the election.
DeSantis later changed his stance, saying that Kennedy might be eligible for a bipartisan task force that would oversee the authorities.
“It wouldn’t be … he would be the head of the CDC,” he said. “That would be a doctor or a PhD.”
The Kennedy campaign did not respond to questions about his interest in those roles.
He’s consistently around 15 percent in the Democratic primary, according to a moving average from politics website FiveThirtyEight.
Republicans have escalated his attacks on Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the faces of the Trump administration’s pandemic response.
Former Donald Trump is still the clear leader in our poll of Iowa Republicans
He said he would prosecute Fauci if “crimes were committed.”
But any formal role in government would be deeply contested.
His anti-vaccination stance dates back to at least 2005, and he continues to promote unverified and debunked theories.
Last month, in a podcast interview, he claimed that “there is no vaccine that is safe and effective,” and he’s clinging to a false scientific claim that vaccinations for mumps, measles and rubella can cause autism in children.
During a fundraiser at a New York restaurant, he reportedly said that COVID-19 is a bioweapon that may have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.
He later said the reporting was wrong and he didn’t think the virus was intentionally targeting specific ethnic groups.
“I never claimed that the COVID-19 virus was aimed at sparing Jews,” Kennedy wrote on Twitter.
Instead, he said he wanted to show that the virus offered a proof of concept for ethnically targeted bioweapons.