SOUND THE ALARM: RFK Jr. Caught Meddling in Iowa Congressional Races

In case you missed it, a bombshell Washington Post report reveals that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was dispatched as a White House “liaison” to pressure Libertarian candidate Rick Stewart to drop out of Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District race in order to benefit Republican nominee Joe Mitchell and MAGA allies in Washington. 

In their phone conversation, Kennedy implied that Stewart exiting the race could be mutually beneficial — as Democrats taking back the House majority mean that Kennedy could find himself “fighting subpoenas for the next two years.” It wasn’t the first call Kennedy made in Iowa. Libertarian candidate Marco Battaglia received a similar call just three days earlier, telling him that control of the House was in danger if he stayed in the race for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District. 

Republicans are pulling out all the stops because they know voters are fed up with their reckless agenda, and that their power is hanging by a thread. The path to taking back the U.S. House majority in November runs through Iowa, and EMILYs List candidates Lindsay James and Sarah Trone Garriott put these races in play. 

Read an excerpt from The Washington Post below, and the full story here.

RFK Jr. urged Iowa candidate to make deal to help GOP win House seat, per audio recording, The Washington Post
Dan Diamond, 6/25/26

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged a Libertarian congressional candidate in Iowa to drop out of a competitive House race to help Republicans keep control of Congress, according to an audio recording of the conversation obtained by The Washington Post.

During the call, Kennedy said he was acting as a “liaison” with the White House, argued that a Democratic takeover of the House would undermine President Donald Trump’s agenda and suggested that he could help the candidate if he left the race. He also suggested that the candidate could “make an agreement” that would accomplish more than a “symbolic run” for office.

“I can’t go into specifics because there’s legal prohibitions about that,” Kennedy told Rick Stewart, a Libertarian candidate running in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, in a June 11 call. “If it’s something that you want to talk about, you know, you and I can talk about specifics.”

Kennedy’s phone call was at least his second to an Iowa congressional candidate this month, according to Libertarian politicians in the state.

Government ethics experts said Kennedy’s apparent intervention in the Iowa races was unethical and potentially illegal, depending on whether he promised candidates specific favors and whether he made the calls in his capacity as a Cabinet official, among other factors.

[…]

Stewart, a 74-year-old who has previously run as a Libertarian in other Iowa races, said in an interview that he interpreted Kennedy’s roughly 12-minute call as an attempt at quid pro quo. No specific offer was made, but the message was clear, he said.

“He was very careful about the words that he used, but the whole implication is: You help us, we’ll help you,” Stewart said. “They want to get me out because I might pick up 2 or 3 percent — and if I pick up 2 or 3 percent, they think it’ll come out of the Republican pocket.”

[…]

The White House has increasingly focused on the midterms, aware that Democrats are eager to open investigations of Trump and his policies if they reclaim a chamber of Congress — which comes with the power to subpoena federal officials. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee this week signaled their plan to investigate Kennedy’s changes to vaccine policies, moves to unwind public health programs and other controversial moves if they take back the majority.

In his call with Stewart, Kennedy appeared to allude to this possibility.

“I don’t want to be fighting subpoenas for the next two years instead of improving America’s health,” Kennedy told the congressional candidate. “For me, you know, there’s an immediate pragmatic reason for this phone call.”

Republican advisers have said the party must defend some normally safe congressional seats amid the president’s low poll numbers, rising costs for Americans and the unpopular war with Iran.

Trump and his deputies have warned that if Democrats flip one or both chambers of Congress, it will pose an existential threat — not just to the president’s policies, but to the nation.

[…]

Kennedy’s outreach to Stewart followed a June 8 call with Marco Battaglia, the Libertarian candidate in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, in which Kennedy also warned that the House could flip for Democrats if Battaglia stayed in the race, Battaglia said. The call was not recorded, he said.

The Cook Political Report rates the 3rd District contest as a toss-up.

Kennedy “leaned on me slightly to drop out,” Battaglia said, adding that he thought about it before declining. “‘I don’t think your father and uncle would want me to drop out of the race,’” he said he told the health secretary, invoking Kennedy’s father, former attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, and former president John F. Kennedy, his uncle.

[…]

On his June 11 call with Stewart, Kennedy said that White House officials were tracking the Iowa 2nd District race and were particularly worried about losing control of the House, Stewart said in an interview, referring to a portion of the call that was unrecorded.

Both Stewart and Battaglia told The Post that Kennedy’s calls to them were preceded by unexpected outreach from their Republican counterparts in their respective congressional races. Stewart said that Joe Mitchell, the Republican nominee in Iowa’s 2nd District, first asked to meet with him and they had a lengthy conversation.

“He did the same thing — he wanted me to pull out because he’s afraid I’ll take votes away from him,” Stewart said.

[…]

Speaking to Kennedy a few days later, Stewart told the health secretary that he was skeptical that a Republican would solve the problems facing his congressional district.

Kennedy responded by comparing Stewart’s situation to his own decision in 2024 when he struck a deal to support Trump.

“The question for you is not whether a Republican is going to solve any of the problems that you’re dealing with, that you’re concerned about,” Kennedy said. “Or whether you may be able to solve more problems in a different position than going in and winning 3 or 4 percent of an election.”

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