Kennedy said he’s loyal to Trump and the mission they’re undertaking to improve the health of Americans.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Aug. 15 said he will not be running for president in 2028 and that he is loyal to President Donald Trump.
Kennedy
said on X that lobbyists are trying “to drive a wedge between President Trump and me, hoping to thwart our team from dismantling the status quo and advancing POTUS’ Make America Healthy Again agenda.”
He added: “They’re pushing the flat-out lie that I’m running for president in 2028. Let me be clear: I am not running for president in 2028.”
Kennedy said he’s loyal to Trump and the mission they’re undertaking to improve the health of Americans.
“The president has made himself the answer to my 20-year prayer that God would put me in a position to end the chronic disease epidemic—and that’s exactly what my team and I will do until the day he leaves office,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy, 71, declared for the 2024 race as a Democrat but
shifted to being an independent after the Democratic Party backed the incumbent, Joe Biden, 82; declined to hold debates; and put up other roadblocks to a typical primary.
In August 2024, Kennedy
suspended his campaign and said he was supporting Trump, 79.
After Trump won the race, he named Kennedy as his health secretary to enact initiatives as part of the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
Trump cannot run in 2028 because he already served as president from 2017 to 2021. The U.S. Constitution states that “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
No individuals have formally launched 2028 campaigns.
Polls
Recent polls have indicated that Kennedy would receive some votes from Republicans, but that Vice President JD Vance is the most popular pick in a hypothetical Republican primary.
About half of the respondents said they would back Vance in a nationwide Emerson College poll
in June. Kennedy received support from 5 percent of respondents, behind Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In an Emerson poll in California this month, 10 percent of Republican voters backed Kennedy. That was behind only Vance, who was supported by 40 percent of respondents.
Among all Republicans
responding to a spring Yale University youth poll, Kennedy received 9 percent support—far behind Vance’s 53 percent—but Kennedy drew 13 percent support among Republicans under 30 years of age.
Trump said on Aug. 5 that Vance is “probably favored” in 2028. He also suggested Rubio could become Vance’s running mate or be part of a Vance administration.
Kennedy has carried out trips to various states since becoming health secretary in February, and his initiatives have primarily drawn support from Republican legislators. Some Democrats, such as Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, have backed one or more initiatives, such as
disallowing the purchase of soda with food stamps or
banning pharmaceutical advertisements. Other Democrats have opposed all of his efforts and criticized him for taking steps to roll back vaccine recommendations.
In an Emerson College poll
from July, 23 percent of respondents said they trusted Kennedy a great deal to provide reliable information. Another 26 percent said they trusted him a fair amount. The rest of the respondents said they trusted him not much or not at all.
