WASHINGTON — The children Dolores Mejia has seen around her Phoenix neighborhood have been gaining weight in recent years. Even their parents, he says.
Mejia, a 75-year-old retiree, says he too has had his own weight struggle.
That’s why Robert F. Kennedy Jr Along with the campaign, he pledged to “Make America Healthy Again.” Donald Trump called his attention. He liked the questions Kennedy raised about the role of processed foods America’s obesity epidemic.
“I’m a junk food person,” said Mejia, an ardent Trump supporter. “I began to wonder where those extra pounds came from.”
After listening to Kennedy, he concluded: “We cannot rely on the health institutions that we have relied on for years to tell us that our food is safe.”
Republicans like Mejia have embraced Kennedy, whose alliance with the president-elect could turn him into an environmentalist and vaccine skeptic. the nation’s chief health officer next year Republicans have a very positive view of Kennedy, with most of them approving of Trump’s decision to put him in his administration, according to recent polls. Associated Press-NORC Public Affairs Research Center and AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 120,000 voters in the 2024 presidential election.
But Americans are generally less positive about Kennedy, and there is no widespread support some of his opinionswhich include rigorous vaccine testing.
If confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy will be tasked with leading the Department of Health and Human Services, a $1.7 trillion agency that researches cancer, approves prescription drugs and provides health insurance to roughly half the country.
About 6 in 10 Republicans approve of Kennedy Trump’s Cabinet nomination and about 1 in 10 disapprove, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in December, while the rest don’t know or have no opinion.
Kennedy’s talk about healthy foods caught the attention of Natalie Moralez, a 32-year-old engineer from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who identifies as an independent.
He likes his promises to take over powerful companies. And he is eager to challenge the ingredients used in the foods he finds on supermarket shelves.
“Even just buying it from the grocery store, what else is there?” Moralez said. “That’s my main concern, and I’m hoping to figure out what the underlying issues are and see if we can do better.”
Kennedy does not fare well among Americans, with about 4 in 10 US adults disapproving and 3 in 10 supporting his nomination.
Although Kennedy is a member of one of the most powerful Democratic dynasties in the country, most Democrats have said they do not like being appointed to Trump’s Cabinet. About 6 in 10 Democrats “strongly disapprove” of the choice, according to December polls. That’s higher A share of condemnation than other high-profile picks such as Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense or Marco Rubio for secretary of state.
Kennedy began his career as an environmental lawyer and won major lawsuits against companies over chemicals used in herbicides and heavy metal smelters.
But in recent years, it has attracted a large and loyal following it claims to be vaccinesrecommended and advocated by the nation’s public health agencies, are dangerous. That’s despite decades of research, laboratory testing, and real-world use showing that childhood vaccines have prevented millions of deaths.
“There is no vaccine that is safe and effective,” Kennedy said In a podcast in July 2023. The same year in an interview on Fox News, he said He believes an idea that has been discredited time and time again that vaccines can cause autism. In recent days, Trump has increasingly suggested this the connection between autism and vaccines should be studied — even decades research he has already concluded that there is no connection between the two.
Allies Trump and Kennedy have vowed not to withdraw vaccines, instead saying they oppose government mandates and want more vaccine research.
But around half of voters want the government to do more to ensure vaccination against childhood diseases, AP VoteCast.
A quarter said the government’s current involvement was “just right”, and only 2 in 10 wanted the government to be less involved. But parents of school-age children were slightly more likely to support a smaller government role: 3 in 10 parents of children under 18 wanted the government less involved, compared with 2 in 10 voters who did not have children under 18.
Among Trump voters, a third wanted the government to be less involved in ensuring vaccination against childhood diseases.
A similar share wanted more government involvement, with 3 in 10 saying its involvement was adequate. 4 in 10 Trump voters who are parents of children under 18 said they want the government to be less involved in making sure children get vaccinated, while a third said they want more involved.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit pending against several news organizations, including the AP, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking steps to identify misinformation. , including COVID-19 and related to COVID-19. vaccines Kennedy left the group when he announced his candidacy for president, but is listed as one of his lawyers in the lawsuit.
People who voted in the presidential race this November were split on Kennedy, according to AP VoteCast.
Kennedy had dropped out of the presidential race by then, throwing his support behind Trump, but he continued to vote in some states.
About 4 in 10 voters had a very or somewhat favorable opinion of Kennedy, and roughly 4 in 10 had a very or somewhat unfavorable opinion. Slightly more than 1 in 10 did not know enough to have an opinion about Kennedy.
Republican voters – about two-thirds – were more likely to have a favorable opinion of Kennedy, far more than the 2 in 10 Democrats who viewed him positively. Meanwhile, about 7 in 10 Democrats had a negative opinion of Kennedy, with about half saying they had a “very unfavorable” opinion.
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The AP-NORC survey of 1,251 adults was conducted December 5-9, 2024, using a sample drawn from the NORC probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the US population. The margin of sampling error for adults is generally plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
The AP VoteCast was a survey of American voters conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for Fox News, PBS NewsHour, The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press. The survey of more than 120,000 voters was conducted over eight days, ending when the polls closed. The interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. The survey combines a random sample of registered voters drawn from state voter files; self-identified voters using NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the US population; and self-identified registered voters selected from non-probability online panels. The margin of voter sampling error is estimated to be plus or minus 0.4 percentage points. Find more details about AP VoteCast’s methodology here https://ap.org/votecast.
