Key Senate Democrats and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. closely align on how they view the processed food industry and on the belief that the federal government has failed to regulate it to protect Americans’ health for years.
That doesn’t mean those Democrats are lining up to vote for him to be the next health secretary — but some are at least not ruling it out.
“The food industry is producing food which is very unhealthy for our kids, resulting in obesity and diabetes, and some of their food is addictive,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told NOTUS. “Do I think the U.S. government should deal with it? Of course I do.”
Sanders didn’t indicate whether he’d vote to confirm Kennedy when asked by NOTUS.
“There is a process that, as you know, we go through in the Senate … and then people reach their conclusions,” he said.
Food labeling and quality isn’t a new issue for Sanders: As early as 2012, he introduced a farm bill amendment calling for states to label products with genetically engineered ingredients.
“It’s not complicated. People want to know the quality of the food they’re eating and what they’re giving to their kids,” Sanders wrote on X in 2016.
In a recent HELP Committee hearing about how the FDA labels food, Sanders took FDA Commissioner Robert Califf to task about what he perceives as the agency’s lack of oversight on junk foods.
“According to the CDC, the rate of childhood obesity in America has tripled since the 1970s. And from where I’m standing here, the FDA has not responded in any way with the urgency of the crisis,” he said at the hearing. “How long does it take to put a bloody label on a product?”
Sanders’ criticisms of the FDA closely align with Kennedy’s, although the HHS nominee’s are more extreme. Kennedy called for the FDA to stop its work on nutrition completely, saying the agency is “not doing their job” in an interview with NBC last month.
Kennedy’s alignment with some Democrats on this issue isn’t surprising given that he was once a Democrat himself and ran for president as a Democrat before switching to an independent bid. Before dropping out of the presidential race altogether and endorsing Donald Trump, Kennedy reportedly sought a meeting with Kamala Harris’ team to discuss a position in her cabinet in exchange for his endorsement.
Trump’s record from his first term indicates that the president-elect might be at odds with Kennedy on the food industry: Trump pursued a strong deregulatory agenda that impacted several facets of food safety, including nutrition labeling. And the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025’s policy recommendations could further slow existing work on nutrition and food labeling if implemented when Trump takes office again.
Sen. Cory Booker is among a contingent of Senate Democrats with strong opinions on food. Known for adhering to a strict vegan diet and occasionally not eating sugar, Booker introduced the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act in 2023 and the Safe School Meals Act in 2024.
Booker told NOTUS he has mixed feelings about Kennedy’s fitness to serve as HHS secretary.
When it comes to Kennedy’s opinions about food, “He says a lot of things that I agree with,” Booker told NOTUS. But he added that “there’s a lot of concerns that I have about other issues that could undermine the safety of children,” like Kennedy’s views on vaccines.
“But again, I feel a big sense of urgency,” Booker said. “The number one killer of Americans is diet-related diseases, and we need people that are going to begin to tell the truth about our agriculture policy.”
In response to a video Booker shared on X in late November about the dangers of chemical additives in food, Kennedy thanked Booker for his “long history of leadership” on the issue.
But despite their relative alignment with Kennedy’s views on the food industry, Democratic senators haven’t taken steps to actively shore up support for his confirmation.
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee — which will take the first steps in deciding the fate of Kennedy’s nomination — told NOTUS that none of his Democratic colleagues have asked to discuss Kennedy with the committee. Some Democratic senators have made it clear they cannot see past Kennedy’s history of promoting falsehoods about vaccine safety.
In 2022, Sen. Ed Markey introduced a bill to tighten the FDA’s regulation of food additives, writing on X at the time that “the FDA is shirking its responsibility and manufacturers can self-regulate chemicals entering our food supply.” Markey has also introduced food labeling, food sourcing and food packaging legislation.
But Markey told NOTUS Kennedy’s other stances are a deal-breaker.
“The fact that someone is right on one issue does not mean they’re right on every issue, including vaccines and fluoridation and the cause of AIDS,” Markey said. “So I’m opposed to his nomination.”
While Sen. Elizabeth Warren hasn’t directly addressed processed food or any of the other hot-button issues that Kennedy has pledged to take on, she’s otherwise called out the food industry, including for price gouging. But in a statement after Kennedy’s nomination, Warren said Kennedy “poses a danger to public health, scientific research, medicine and health care coverage for millions of Americans” and that she would have “a lot of questions” when Kennedy appears before the Finance Committee.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, who also serves on the Senate Finance Committee, said in an interview with WMUR-TV last month that Kennedy and some other cabinet nominees are “deeply concerning.”
During last week’s HELP hearing, Hassan called on Califf and the FDA to address misleading junk food labeling on unhealthy products targeted toward children and parents. Many of Kennedy’s food-related declarations have also been centered around children — including his promise to strip “ultra-processed foods” from school lunches upon taking office.
But their shared focus on better food labeling and children’s nutrition isn’t enough of a selling point for Hassan.
“If you look at someone like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who says he can’t think of a safe vaccine. I grew up, my grandfather was a pediatrician and he can remember practicing medicine before vaccines and after, and the number of lives that vaccines have saved are real and important to our public health and safety,” Hassan said on WMUR-TV.
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Margaret Manto and Shifra Dayak are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.