DAVID MARCUS: GOP owes RFK Jr. big time, and the debt is due
With the exceptions of former President Joe Biden’s dead-man-walking debate performance and the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Penn., no event swung the 2024 presidential election to our current president more decidedly than his endorsement by Robert F Kennedy, Jr.
The impact that the scion of the Democrats’ greatest family had on voters should not be lost on Republican senators as they consider his nomination for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services this week.
These members of the world’s greatest deliberative body, direct descendants of those in ancient Rome, should remember that SPQR, or Senatus Populusque Romanus, means The Senate and The People. And that the latter usually win in the end.
The day before RFK, Jr.’s Aug. 23, 2024 endorsement of Trump, I wrote in this very space what independent and frustrated voters I met across the country who were ready to just sit it out had to say.
‘’hey’re both so tied down by money and special interests,’ a couple in San Francisco told me. ‘We need a real outsider.’
Another voter said to me, ‘What are we even voting for?’
If Kennedy comes out this week and says he believes Trump is the one who can break up the monotonous monopoly of Washington power, then many of these voters may well pivot to the former president’s side.’
Columnist Selena Zito, who might be the only person who expended more tire tread than I during the past election, had this to say this week on X:
‘The most interesting voter bloc I saw in Pennsylvania move towards Trump happened when Bobby Kennedy Jr endorsed Trump & just enough young, college educated suburban moms who were concerned about what their children are eating, joined him.’
Between the disaffected voters I was talking to and the moms Zito met with, none of whom were overly fond of Trump, there were enough votes for Republicans to win up and down the ballot.
Don’t want to trust the anecdotes and instincts of shoe-leather columnists? That’s a mistake, but for those who prefer analytical data, well, it shows up there too.
On the day RFK, Jr. endorsed Trump, polls showed Kamala Harris had a 3.7 point lead over Trump. It was the largest lead she would ever have in the race.
Elections have consequences, and millions of new Republican voters demand that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm of HHS be one of them.
After RFK, Jr. threw in with the Donald, Harris fell and fell in the polling until we all know what happened.
The health food moms and disgruntled dads Kennedy brought into the GOP fold are not going to take kindly to the bait and switch if oh-so-principled .senators replace their reason for voting Republican with a run-of-the-mill establishment lackey.
There is likely only one bite at the apple that the Republican Party has with the RFK, Jr. voters. If they spit in their faces, they ain’t getting them back, and that could cause electoral woes in 2026 and beyond.
In terms of the American voter who matters, who is persuadable, or who might just sit it out, RFK, Jr. is as big a mandate as border security or the economy It would be foolish for Republican senators to ignore their will.
RFK, Jr. is a symbol. For some, he represents a new way to think about health and the food supply. For others, he is a check on power, or the guy with nothing controlling him. To still others, he may remain a climate activist.
All of that is as may be. What we know is that the voters who put this Republican majority in power, at least those who were not already on board, want Kennedy. And there no reason to fear that he’s going to cause a smallpox outbreak, ban penicillin, or outlaw the polio vaccine.
In ancient Rome, when senators fell too far out of line with the people, bad things could happen. If the old school Trump-skeptical GOP members of the upper body of Congress defy the will of the people, it’s not just them falling on their own electoral sword, but the whole party.
Elections have consequences, and millions of new Republican voters demand that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm of HHS be one of them.