President Donald Trump ran three times on draining the swamp and doing a hard course correction of a broken system. In his second term, Make America Healthy Again was a key part of that promise: question the institutions that have made Americans sicker, challenge the industries that profit from the status quo, and finally put families ahead of corporate convenience.
What matters most to mothers excited about MAHA priorities like me is on my child’s plate. This is of particular concern in light of the recent surge of deadly foodborne illnesses.
The Food and Drug Administration has enormous influence over the safety, quality, and regulation of the food people, and especially our children, eat every day. The agency regulates roughly 77% of the U.S. food supply. That means the person nominated to lead the FDA will be in the driver’s seat when it comes to the issues MAHA cares most about.
That’s why Dr. Heidi Overton’s nomination to lead the FDA should alarm anyone who believed MAHA was going to change the way Washington thinks about our health. Overton has spent much of the second Trump administration reportedly at odds with the very people trying to turn the MAHA agenda into policy.
I know Washington. I was digital director for House Republicans during the Tea Party era, and later digital director at the Heritage Foundation. I left the insular, status-driven culture that can dominate our capital and national politics for Indiana, preferring flyover country for my family — a place where we could gain some perspective on life, faith, and one another.
That’s part of why I got excited about Make America Healthy Again. It aligned with everyday people’s values, not those of the people with money and power.
MAHA has already delivered real wins for parents like me. The FDA finally phased out artificial red dye, far behind our European counterparts. It ditched processed and sugar-heavy grains as the foundation of a “healthy” diet and replaced them with protein-filled meats. And it’s elevated pesticide scrutiny to the highest levels of government, which means that the most environment- and human-friendly practices, such as regenerative farming, are finally having their moment in the sun (and in our bellies).
But look at Overton’s record inside the administration, and a troubling pattern emerges: On issue after issue important to MAHA, she has been a source of resistance rather than momentum.
Pesticides and nutrition were some of those key priorities that first brought many MAHA mothers into politics. But MAHA-aligned officials in the administration have criticized Overton on the matter. The Atlantic reported that one person who worked with her described her as “controlled opposition” to the administration’s health agenda.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called the pesticide glyphosate one of the “likely culprits” in America’s chronic disease epidemic, and said more recently that he was “not particularly happy” with the administration’s decision to boost its production. Overton has reportedly been on the other side of both fights from Kennedy.
Some of MAHA’s most recognizable advocates have made their concerns public. Alex Clark called Overton’s nomination the “nail in the coffin for MAHA.” Pesticide activist Kelly Ryerson accused Overton of echoing pharma giant Bayer’s arguments during a White House MAHA discussion. Those are extraordinary reactions to someone now being asked to lead the agency at the center of the movement’s food and health agenda.
If the people fighting to implement MAHA repeatedly found themselves fighting Overton inside the administration, why would she now be the person chosen to lead the FDA?
But it gets worse. She’s unqualified for the job on paper, too, because she has zero background in food policy or food safety. Her professional history is centered on clinical medicine and White House policymaking rather than food regulation or FDA management.
Being a physician does not make someone qualified to oversee the safety of most of America’s food supply. A medical degree is not a substitute for relevant experience. We should remember this with Overton, especially when she is already facing serious questions about whether she shares MAHA’s priorities in the first place.
Is this really the disruption we were promised? Or is it the same Washington answer to the same Washington problem, with a new name on the door?
I’ve seen both sides of this now — inside Washington, D.C., and from the nation’s bread basket, where MAHA mothers live and watch Washington mess up our lives from bureaucratic office chairs where “farm to table” arrives by Uber Eats.
The FDA doesn’t need someone who knows how to survive in Washington. It needs someone who understands what America’s heartland mothers and the country actually need: a food supply and an agency that finally puts families first.
RFK JR. WANTED ‘GOLD STANDARD’ SCIENCE. MRNA JUST DELIVERED IT
Parents did not rally behind MAHA so that Washington could reshuffle the same political class and call it reform. We wanted people inside government who were willing to fight the institutions and interests that had ignored these concerns for too long.
The Overton nomination looks like a betrayal of that promise. If MAHA means anything, the FDA should be led by someone who has spent the past two years advancing its agenda, not someone MAHA allies repeatedly found themselves fighting.
Ericka Andersen is a conservative writer and advocate who writes about health, family, culture, and public policy.