A Progressive Democrat Tried to Woo MAHA Republicans. The Early Response Is Revealing.

Politics Abdul El-Sayed Wants MAHA Voters to Hear Him Out Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Brandon Bell/Getty Images, Sarah Rice/Getty Images, and Getty images Plus. Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Locked in a tight Senate race in Michigan, progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is vying for every vote he can get—and even some he probably can’t. El-Sayed is reaching out to the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, a loosely affiliated group of voters, many of them part of Donald Trump’s 2024 coalition, best known for their opposition to vaccines, as well as their concern about chemicals in our food, water, and air. In a bid for their support, the Michigan Democrat is pushing what his campaign calls the “Building a Healthier America” agenda, which focuses on having fewer chemicals and toxins in food and crops, healthier lunches, more funding for public health programs, breaking up “corporate concentration in agriculture,” and purging Michigan’s drinking water of microplastics. The agenda is big on healthier lunches in schools, and the campaign is calling for public policy to “integrate healthy food into how Michigan delivers healthcare.” El-Sayed’s effort is representative of a broader push among Democrats to make inroads into a MAHA movement that Trump largely captured by co-opting its standard-bearer. The movement’s unofficial leader is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who ran for president in 2024 before dropping out and endorsing Trump. Not coincidentally, Trump subsequently picked Kennedy to be his Health and Human Services secretary. Atop HHS, Kennedy has taken a much more adversarial stance toward vaccines and vaccine requirements, a reflection of his longtime push to connect vaccines for children with health issues, including autism. (To be clear, Kennedy is trafficking in conspiracy theories and is on the wrong side of science. Vaccines are safe and effective in preventing diseases that once made child mortality catastrophically higher than it is today.) But the MAHA-MAGA coalition is not without its points of friction, particularly when it comes to agriculture and pesticide companies with deep pockets and close ties to lawmakers in both parties—but particularly farm-state Republicans. MAHA had hoped for more restrictive policies on pesticides and a crackdown on industrialized agriculture, but they’ve come away disappointed. In February, Trump signed an executive order promoting the production of a weed-killing chemical that MAHA had targeted, leaving many in the movement disillusioned. They were further disappointed when Kennedy came out in support of the order in one of the more obvious fall-on-your-pesticide-laden-sword moments of recent political history. Democrats are hoping to exploit that rift. “It’s smart for Abdul to appeal to MAHA voters in Michigan, some of whom are definitely persuadable given President Trump’s record on what he told MAHA he would do in office versus what he’s done,” a veteran Michigan political strategist said. Nabbing even a few MAHA voters could go a long way. El-Sayed is running against Republican Mike Rogers, and most recent polls put the Democrat narrowly ahead. There’s some evidence of crossover appeal. “We are very interested in any candidate who is taking the issue of pesticides, toxins in our environment, and health seriously,” said Zen Honeycutt, who identifies as part of the MAHA movement and is the founding executive director of Moms Across America, a prominent group within the broader MAHA movement. There is an enormous sticking point to all of this: vaccines—and, more specifically, vaccine mandates. “I understand that [El-Sayed] believes in vaccines, and that’s fine with most of us as long as he doesn’t push his beliefs on us,” Honeycutt said. “Meaning, as long as, as an elected official, he does not support vaccine mandates that prevent our children from going to school or camp or church or anything of the like.” I asked El-Sayed’s campaign where the candidate stands. The campaign pointed to El-Sayed telling CBS that he would “always be evidence-driven when it comes to vaccines … but the key thing is that you want to know what you’re feeding your kids and what you’re putting in the body is pure. And RFK Jr. and Donald Trump and Mike Rogers have failed that in droves.” El-Sayed added that he looked forward to “listening and learning” and that “where there might be disagreements on vaccine policy, I think we all agree that Big Pharma is a real problem.” That’s a notable nonanswer on whether he supports vaccine mandates, which are in place in the overwhelmingly majority of schools nationwide. (It turns out that most parents don’t want their kids sharing toys with peers who are, due to their parents’ choices, at elevated risk for carrying deadly diseases.) Basically, the candidate is saying that he’ll hear MAHA out on vaccines, but his policy preferences on the issue aren’t going to align with theirs. And for Honeycutt and her fellow ideological travelers, that sure seems like a dealbreaker. “I guarantee you our moms will be looking into his stance on vaccines,” she said of El-Sayed. “If he at all hints at being in favor of vaccine mandates, that will cancel out his appeal as far as pesticides and making America healthy again.” MAHA is an expansive movement, and Honeycutt doesn’t speak for all of it. But it’s difficult to imagine many MAHA voters abandoning their signature issue for an El-Sayed vote. That’s not a dismissal of the outreach attempt so much as a reflection of where the MAHA movement is in reality. Democrats would have a decent shot at voters who equally weighted vaccines with, say, organic food or clean-water protections, but that voter is more often aspirational than corporeal. Because on vaccines, the issue on which MAHA voters are most decisively in conflict with the scientific consensus, they are the most dug in. And no number of white papers, roundtables, or outreach events is going to change that. The bulk of El-Sayed’s efforts, however, still focus on turning out Democrats’ base. On Monday, the campaign said that later this month the Senate contender would be campaigning alongside former President Barack Obama. Elections Environment Food Health Senate Vaccines Farming Michigan Conspiracy Theories