Ex-RFK Jr. staffers pop up super PAC to back Trump in swing states

Former staffers for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s now-suspended presidential campaign have launched a super PAC to convince Kennedy supporters to back Donald Trump.

About one dozen ex-staffers are behind the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) PAC, Jeff Hutt, a spokesperson for the PAC, told POLITICO. The group includes many members of the independent campaign’s former field team, he said.

When Kennedy dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Trump at the end of August, he encouraged his supporters to still vote for him if they did not live in a swing state. But on Thursday, Kennedy wrote in a message to his campaign’s email list, “No matter what state you live in, I urge you to vote for Donald Trump.”

The PAC plans to add grassroots support to Kennedy’s new directive.

“This is what we need to do to get Mr. Kennedy over the finish line and to go and do this with the same energy that our volunteers and supporters were using to get Mr. Kennedy in the White House,” said Hutt, who was also Kennedy's national field director. “Now they need to take that energy and refocus it into getting Mr. Kennedy a seat at the table at the White House with a unity ticket with Donald Trump.”

The PAC plans to focus on voters both in swing states where Kennedy is unable to get his name off the ballot — legal challenges are ongoing — and blue states where it believes it has significant enough volunteers and polling support to help Trump. Virginia and New Hampshire are top targets.

The PAC’s president is Jared Volz, who was also a national field director with the campaign for most of 2023 through the beginning of this year.

Hutt said the PAC is a “labor of love” dedicated to engaging voters at the grassroots level who need convincing to back Trump, but MAHA also hopes to raise enough money for a media buy in key states.

Nicole Shanahan, who was Kennedy’s running mate and principal financial backer during his run, has not been solicited for a donation, he said.

When Kennedy suspended his campaign, his national polling average was about 5 percent and declining. But the presidential election is shaping up to be narrowly divided in swing states, and the ability to convince even a fraction of Kennedy's supporters to vote for Trump could be decisive.

”As you know, this could be a very close election. A disputed election result would be a disaster for our divided nation,” Kennedy wrote. “President Trump needs to win in a landslide both in the Electoral College and the popular vote. He can’t do it unless my supporters join him and look at the big picture.”

Make America Healthy Again PAC will file its first financial disclosure report on Oct. 15.