Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is taking his Make America Healthy Again agenda to Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday to rally support from voters for the Trump administration’s health policies.
Tennessee marks Kennedy’s second stop on his “Take Back Your Health” tour this year in the lead-up to the 2026 elections, and he is likely to address various health policy goals from President Donald Trump.
Healthcare will likely be a major motivator for voters in November following last year’s prolonged government shutdown over a healthcare deal and Congress’s failure to reach a deal on extending Obamacare premium subsidies.
Although voters consistently say the economy is their No. 1 priority when choosing a candidate, healthcare costs rank the highest priority when it comes to cost of living. According to the health policy organization KFF, two-thirds of voters say they are concerned about affording their healthcare.
Kennedy is likely to play up how the Trump administration’s focus on making deals with pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug costs will help consumers, as well as the Rural Health Transformation Fund allocated as part of the GOP’s reconciliation bill last summer.
He will also likely highlight the $100 million being invested in new opioid addiction and homelessness programs from HHS as part of Trump’s Great American Recovery Initiative to tackle the drug epidemic with systemic changes.
When it comes to giving voters a MAHA boost before the election, though, Kennedy will likely be preaching to the choir.
Tennessee’s legislature introduced 21 MAHA-related bills last year. Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN), who will also be speaking with Kennedy at the event, is also a strong advocate of Kennedy’s agenda in his state, particularly on food policy and children’s health.
In April 2025, Lee was one of the first governors to sign a bill taking steps to remove junk food and sodas from the state’s food stamps program. He also signed bills to ban certain electronics for children from schools, ban red dye 40 from school lunches, change food labeling requirements for GMO meat products, and loosen vaccine requirements for families receiving state assistance.
Kennedy touted the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans during the first stop on his Take Back Your Health tour last month in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, focusing on food policy in an agricultural hub of the East Coast.
Although Kennedy denied during the Pennsylvania rally that he was seeking another presidential bid in 2028, the event appeared similar to a campaign stop to solidify support for the GOP from MAHA voters in 2026.
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) is up for reelection in 2026, but he is also widely seen as a contender for the 2028 presidential nomination, representing the centrist wing of his party. After Kennedy’s speech in Harrisburg, Shapiro made several pointed posts on Instagram and X bashing Kennedy, saying his administration will follow scientific evidence on both food policy and vaccines.
MAHA initiatives have been very popular in states with Democratic governors, including Pennsylvania, where Republican state legislators introduced 30 bills aligned with Kennedy’s agenda last year.
New York topped the list with 88 MAHA bills, followed by Massachusetts at 73 and Minnesota at 47, according to an analysis from Politico.
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Polling data from October 2025 conducted by KFF found that 4 in 10 parents identify as supporters of the MAHA movement, but there is a partisan split.
Approximately 6 in 10 Republican parents support MAHA, while only 1 in 6 Democratic parents report the same. About one-third of independent parents identify with the movement.
