Red states across the country are advancing the MAHA agenda through legislation, executive orders, and waivers to the SNAP program.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement is quickly becoming a political force at the state level.
As Kennedy works to move the federal government in a more pharma-skeptical, populist direction, Republicans are quietly advancing his movement in statehouses across the country.
Kennedy’s influence, wielded in part through an army of online influencers and podcasters, has inspired states, including West Virginia, Oklahoma, Indiana, Utah, Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, and Louisiana, to adopt planks of the MAHA agenda through legislation, executive orders, and waivers to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) designed to address chronic disease and improve American nutrition.
Last month, Kennedy spoke triumphantly in Oklahoma and Louisiana with Republican Governors Kevin Stitt and Jeff Landry about each state’s MAHA initiatives.
Kennedy and Stitt launched the Make Oklahoma Healthy Again initiative at a rally on Thursday, where Stitt signed an executive order instructing the state’s department of health to stop recommending fluoride in the water and directing agencies to not include artificial food dyes or flavors in meals supplied to the public. Stitt also created an advisory council meant to provide suggestions on how to advance the MAHA agenda and signed a SNAP waiver to prevent food stamps from being used to buy unhealthy drinks and candy.
“If you want to drink a bottle of soda, you should be able to have that right. We live in a country where we have individual freedom. The federal government should not be paying for it through taxpayer money,” Kennedy said in Oklahoma, summarizing his position on SNAP waivers.
In Louisiana, Landry signed MAHA legislation to restrict artificial food dyes in school meals and to require physicians to take continuing education programs in nutrition. The bill also requires restaurants to disclose the use of seed oils and food manufacturers to alert customers about certain ingredients.
“We’re done letting chemicals, corporations, and career bureaucrats decide what’s best for our families. In Louisiana, we’re putting parents back in charge, putting real food back on the table, and giving people the tools to take their health into their own hands,” Landry said in a statement.
Like Stitt, Landry signed a SNAP waiver to ban recipients from buying unhealthy sodas and candies. Additionally, Landry signed a bill to allow individuals to purchase ivermectin — the popular Covid therapeutic that was widely derided as “horse dewormer” by mainstream journalists — without a prescription.
The MAHA programs enacted by Oklahoma and Louisiana reflect some of the movement’s top priorities in their fight against chronic disease. MAHA advocates are skeptical of vaccines despite an abundance of evidence showing the benefits of vaccines for immunization.
Kennedy and other MAHA proponents have also questioned the use of fluoride in tap water, which became common in the 20th century because of fluoride’s positive effect on preventing tooth decay. With dental products now containing fluoride, the impact of including fluoride in the water is less substantial, though it still provides a baseline of dental health support.
Some research has linked excessive fluoride consumption to lower IQ levels, prompting the HHS’s national toxicology program to review the evidence through May 2020. The NTP’s report, completed in August 2024, assessed with “moderate confidence” that higher fluoride exposure is associated with lower IQ in children, though critics have argued that the study’s sample size is too small to draw solid conclusions.
MAHA activists are deeply concerned about poor American nutrition and fitness because of the obesity crisis and increasing prevalence of chronic diseases like diabetes. Taking Kennedy’s lead, MAHA proponents have identified artificial food dyes and seed oils, both of which are omnipresent in the American diet, as key contributors to the chronic disease epidemic.
The MAHA movement is open to alternative medicine sources and harshly critical of the influence of pharmaceutical companies on the public health bureaucracy, medical research, media, and both political parties.
Critics believe that the movement is dangerously undermining public trust in lifesaving vaccines and other forms of scientific research through evidence-free assertions. Other critics believe MAHA’s policies infringe on individual liberty and the free market through excessive regulation.
Numerous red states have signed SNAP waivers to remove junk food from the food assistance program. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins signed waivers for Idaho, Arkansas, and Utah on June 10 after previously having signed waivers for Nebraska, Indiana, and Iowa.
“America’s governors have proudly answered the call to innovate by improving nutrition programs, ensuring better choices while respecting the generosity of the American taxpayer. Each waiver submitted by the states and signed is yet another step closer to fulfilling President Trump’s promise to Make America Healthy Again,” Rollins said in a statement.
Each one of those SNAP waivers represents a win for MAHA on the state level and shows its rapid ascent within the Republican Party. Kennedy became a leading Trump campaign surrogate last year after ending his independent presidential campaign and throwing his weight behind Trump. The president and his allies have fully embraced Kennedy’s MAHA goals, giving the movement significant influence on public health policy.
The biggest state level MAHA victory to date took place in West Virginia earlier this year, where Governor Patrick Morrisey (R.) signed a sweeping MAHA legislative package and wholeheartedly embraced Kennedy’s influence. West Virginia enacted a ban on popular synthetic food dyes in school lunches and the rest of the state’s food supply and moved to submit a SNAP waiver of its own.
Another significant MAHA victory happened in Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott (R.) signed a law requiring food labels containing more than 40 additives or dyes if they are restricted or banned in other advanced nations such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. The bipartisan legislation, Senate Bill 25, also creates new nutrition education and physical activity requirements for public school kids.
A portion of the ingredients listed in S.B. 25 are either already restricted in the U.S. or authorized for use in other advanced nations, according to an ABC News analysis. Nonetheless, MAHA activists believe that Texas’s law represents a major win for them over opposition from industry lobbyists.
“This is a landmark moment — not just for Texas but for a bipartisan movement that’s sweeping the country. As chronic illnesses like obesity, diabetes, and autoimmune disease continue to skyrocket nationwide, Americans are increasingly demanding meaningful systemic change,” said Kelly McKenna, executive director of End Chronic Disease.
“The tenets of SB 25 underscore this broader national shift, where lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are finally shining a light on harmful practices — such as the pervasive use of food ingredients banned or restricted in other G-7 nations, and insufficient fitness and nutrition education requirements in schools. Left unchallenged for too long, these practices have steered us to a crisis of chronic illness and undermined our competitiveness as a nation. It’s long overdue that we hold ourselves to a higher standard.”
Elsewhere, Utah signed MAHA legislation banning fluoride in public drinking water and barring certain food dyes and additives from public school meals. Likewise, Arizona banned public schools from serving ultra-processed food to children. Indiana went even further, with Governor Mike Braun (R.) signing nine MAHA-oriented executive orders, including ones to ban artificial food dyes and promote nutrition and fitness.
Kennedy has taken similar action on the national level, moving to ban popular synthetic food dyes from American products by the end of next year. He has taken a collaborative approach with the food industry, and large corporations such as Kraft Heinz, Nestlé, Conagra, and General Mills have announced plans in recent days to phase out food dyes from their products.