Leading Senate Democrats are accusing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of illegally interfering in the midterm elections, saying that he is using his office to protect a GOP majority in the House.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, filed a Hatch Act election integrity complaint with the Office of Special Counsel against Kennedy for pressuring two Libertarian candidates to drop out of their races for Iowa House seats to benefit Republicans.
Wyden’s letter to acting special counsel Jamieson Greer, sent Tuesday, highlighted two calls Kennedy reportedly made in June to Marco Battaglia and Rick Stewart, asking them to drop their candidacies so as not to draw votes away from the Republican candidates in their districts.
“Kennedy has spent sixteen months using his official position to undermine the health and well-being of his fellow Americans, and now he is using his official position to undermine the integrity of democratic elections too,” Wyden wrote.
The Hatch Act, officially the Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities of 1939, requires federal officials to stay politically neutral and prohibits using government resources to interfere with elections. Under the law, federal officials cannot use their official titles or authority to influence election outcomes.
Battaglia, running to represent Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, told Politico last month that Kennedy pressured him in a phone call on June 8 to drop out of the race against Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA).
According to Battaglia’s reported recollection of the conversation, Kennedy said, “If this seat flips, it’ll make my life hell.”
Stewart, running against 2nd Congressional District nominee Joe Mitchell, released a phone call recording with Kennedy from June 11 in which the HHS secretary made a similar plea, outlining that he would be subject to congressional investigations should Democrats win control of the House in November.
Kennedy told Stewart that he did not “want to be fighting subpoenas for the next two years” and said there was “an immediate pragmatic reason for this phone call.”
Kennedy has come under intense scrutiny from congressional Democrats since he was nominated to lead HHS, the executive department with the largest domestic budget portfolio.
Wyden’s committee has oversight jurisdiction over HHS, and the ranking member has flexed his position to investigate Kennedy.
Wyden and his fellow Finance Committee Democrats opened an investigation last month into Kennedy’s changes to vaccine policy, including the remaking of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel last year.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the ranking member on the Senate health committee that also oversees HHS, also released hundreds of pages of emails last month from former CDC staff, alleging Kennedy has overly politicized the agency and diminished the role of scientific experts on vaccine policy.
The letter from Wyden to the Office of Special Counsel also highlighted that Kennedy has been traveling the country as part of his national “Take Back Your Health Tour,” visiting key swing districts for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections.
Wyden urged the special counsel to review Kennedy’s actions “without delay.”
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“Time and urgency are of the essence,” Wyden wrote. “With the White House reportedly dispatching Kennedy as a campaign surrogate across the country, it is likely that Kennedy’s election interference activities extend far beyond the two phone calls we know about in Iowa.”
The Washington Examiner contacted HHS for comment.