‘UNBELIEVABLY DAUNTING’: Kennedy Allies Launch Nonprofit to Help RFK Reform the Public Health Establishment

Allies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gathered Thursday to launch the Make America Healthy Again Institute, an organization aiming to outsource the Health and Human Services Department’s oversight and reform efforts.

“The people in the bureaucracies like the status quo, and so Bobby Kennedy and all of the great people who are at the top of these organizations, they have behind them this movement, this mass of people who care deeply, who’ve been working for years,” MAHA Institute co-founder Mark Gorton said.

“And so, the MAHA Institute has set itself as a goal to channel this energy, to channel this mass movement,” Gorton continued, “and to tactically try and connect all of those people with the people in the government.”

Gorton and Tony Lyons co-chaired the American Values PAC to support Kennedy’s campaign for president. They rebranded the 501(c)(4) wing of American Values as the MAHA Institute.

“We also have a situation now where we have amazing leadership at the federal health agencies, but the number of actual, true MAHA supporters at the top of these agencies is maybe 75 people across an HHS that has 60,000 employees,” Gorton said, “and their job is unbelievably daunting because these bureaucracies are highly resistant to change.”

The MAHA Institute fills the need in D.C. for an organization that “represents the people and focuses on the good of the people and the health of the people.”

“And so, our aspirations are huge,” Gorton said. “We think that we have the potential, over the next few decades, to be one of these anchor organizations in D.C. that has the potential to change policy, to bring about pressure, and to work to its goals for the good of the American people and to document more community interest of that help of the American people.”

White House health adviser Calley Means said the new institute will help connect the MAHA and MAGA movements. While the MAGA movement is male-dominated, there is no gender gap in the MAHA movement, according to Means, who has been nominated by President Donald Trump to be U.S. surgeon general.

“It is inspiring to see how deeply across government officials have taken the part of this mandate from MAHA moms to investigate the root causes,” Means said.

Means’ assertion was represented in the attendees of the conference, which was about half female.

Democrats have advocated against children’s health, Means said, with politicians like Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren fighting for Big Pharma.

But under Trump and Kennedy, the MAHA movement has a “generational opportunity” to meet the challenge of poor children’s health outcomes, Means said. HHS doesn’t need more money or more bureaucrats, but to address the root causes of chronic illness and obesity, according to Means.

“It’s not just because of revolutionary new technology, but it’s also because of the vision of this administration,” Means said. “And so I want to thank the president, Secretary Kennedy, and Administrator [Mehmet] Oz for their vision. But I also want to thank the millions of MAHA members across this country who are planning to build not just a healthier America today, but a healthier tomorrow, and importantly, a healthier future for my generation and our descendants.”

The MAHA movement has the potential to unify people across the political aisle over the issue of human health, former Democrat and Kennedy speechwriter Charles Eisenstein said.

“What has happened is that Democratic Party has abandoned its traditional mission of defending the little guy against power and fraud,” Eisenstein said. “When the media wakes up to this, and when the Democratic Party wakes up to this, we have the potential for unifying popular movements.”

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