By AMANDA SEITZ and LINLEY SANDERS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The children seen by Dolores Mejia round suburban Phoenix have been rising heavier lately. Their mother and father, too, she says.
Mejia, a 75-year-old retiree, says she’s additionally had her personal weight struggles on the size.
That’s why Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s pledge to “Make America Healthy Again” as he campaigned alongside Donald Trump caught her consideration. She favored the questions Kennedy raised in regards to the position of processed meals in America’s weight problems epidemic.
“I’m a junk food person,” mentioned Mejia, an ardent Trump supporter. “I started wondering where those extra pounds came from.”
After listening to Kennedy out, she concluded: “We cannot trust the health organizations we’ve trusted for years to tell us that our foods are safe.”
Republicans comparable to Mejia have embraced Kennedy, whose alliance with the president-elect might make the outstanding environmentalist and vaccine skeptic the nation’s high well being official subsequent yr. Republicans maintain an overwhelmingly optimistic view of Kennedy, with most approving of Trump’s choice to place him in his administration, in keeping with latest polling from The Related Press-NORC Heart for Public Affairs Analysis and AP VoteCast, a survey of greater than 120,000 voters within the 2024 presidential election.
However Individuals total are much less optimistic about Kennedy, and there isn’t broad assist for a few of his views, which embody nearer scrutiny of vaccines.
If confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy will likely be charged with main the Division of Well being and Human Providers, a $1.7 trillion company that researches most cancers, approves prescribed drugs and supplies medical health insurance for roughly half the nation.
What Individuals take into consideration RFK Jr. as nation’s high well being official
About 6 in 10 Republicans approve of Kennedy’s appointment to Trump’s Cupboard and solely about 1 in 10 disapprove, in keeping with an AP-NORC ballot performed in December, whereas the remainder aren’t conversant in him or didn’t have an opinion.
Kennedy’s discuss of wholesome meals is what captured the eye of Natalie Moralez, a 32-year-old engineer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who identifies as an unbiased.
She likes his guarantees to tackle highly effective corporations. And he or she’s wanting to see him problem the elements they use within the meals she finds on grocery store cabinets.
“Even just buying foods from the grocery store, like what else is in there?” Moralez mentioned. “That’s my main concern, and hopefully he can figure out what the underlying issues are and see if we can do better.”
Kennedy doesn’t fare as nicely amongst Individuals total, with about 4 in 10 U.S. adults disapproving and about 3 in 10 approving of his appointment.
Though Kennedy is a member of one of the highly effective Democratic dynasties within the nation, most Democrats mentioned they don’t like that he’s been named to Trump’s Cupboard. About 6 in 10 Democrats “strongly disapprove” of the choose, the December ballot discovered. That’s a better share of disapproval than different high-profile picks comparable to Pete Hegseth to be protection secretary or Marco Rubio for secretary of state.
His anti-vaccine stance isn’t broadly widespread
Kennedy began his profession as an environmental lawyer and received massive lawsuits towards corporations over the chemical compounds utilized in weed killers and heavy steel smelters.
However lately, he’s attracted a large and dependable following over his claims that vaccines, beneficial and championed by the nation’s public well being businesses, are harmful. That’s regardless of many years of analysis, laboratory testing and real-world use that reveals childhood vaccinations have prevented tens of millions of deaths.
Trump and Kennedy allies have promised not to remove vaccines, as an alternative saying they oppose authorities mandates and need to conduct extra analysis on the vaccines.
However about half of voters need the federal government to be extra concerned in making certain kids are vaccinated for childhood ailments, in keeping with AP VoteCast.
About one-quarter mentioned the federal government’s present involvement on that is “about right,” and solely about 2 in 10 wished the federal government to be much less concerned. However mother and father of school-age kids had been considerably extra prone to assist a smaller authorities position: Roughly 3 in 10 mother and father of kids underneath 18 wished the federal government much less concerned, in contrast with about 2 in 10 voters with out kids underneath 18.
Amongst Trump’s voters, about one-third wished the federal government much less concerned in making certain kids are vaccinated for childhood ailments.
The same share wished the federal government extra concerned, and about 3 in 10 mentioned its involvement was about proper. Roughly 4 in 10 Trump voters who’re mother and father of kids underneath 18 mentioned they need the federal government much less concerned in making certain kids are vaccinated, whereas about one-third mentioned they wished it extra concerned.
Most Republican voters favored RFK Jr., and most Democrats didn’t
Individuals who voted within the presidential race this November held divided views on Kennedy, in keeping with AP VoteCast.
Kennedy had dropped out of the presidential race by that time, throwing his assist behind Trump, however remained on the poll in some states.
About 4 in 10 voters had a really or considerably favorable opinion of Kennedy, and roughly 4 in 10 had a really or considerably unfavorable view. Barely greater than 1 in 10 didn’t know sufficient about Kennedy to have an opinion.
Republican voters — about two-thirds — had been extra prone to maintain a positive view of Kennedy, a lot larger than the roughly 2 in 10 Democrats who seen him positively. In the meantime, about 7 in 10 Democrats had a adverse opinion of Kennedy, with about half saying that they had a “very unfavorable” view.
The AP-NORC ballot of 1,251 adults was performed Dec. 5-9, 2024, utilizing a pattern drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be consultant of the U.S. inhabitants. The margin of sampling error for adults total is plus or minus 3.7 proportion factors.
Initially Printed: December 18, 2024 at 9:39 AM PST
