North Carolina’s Sen. Tillis endorses RFK’s nomination as health secretary

WASHINGTON — When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, he had won over the support of Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican senator from North Carolina.

“I hope he goes wild and actually finds a way to reduce the cost of health care,” Tillis said about RFK.

Kennedy, the controversial environmental lawyer turned public health critic, needed to pass the committee vote on Tuesday before the full Senate could vote on his nomination. On Tuesday, committee Republicans voted together to advance his nomination, while Democrats all opposed. 

His nomination now will face a full Senate vote, despite concerns about the work he’s done to sow doubts around vaccine safety and his potential to profit off lawsuits over drugmakers. 

To gain control of the $1.7 trillion Health and Human Services agency, Kennedy will need support from all but three Republicans if Democrats uniformly oppose him.

On Monday, Tillis, once viewed as a possible “no” vote, announced he would back Kennedy.

“He’s the first, I believe, and since I’ve been alive, who’s not been a health care professional in a scientific sense, but he is a professional in terms of carrying this forward,” Tillis said after the vote on Tuesday. 

Tillis said he had heard concerns about Kennedy but decided “it is time to have a different kind of disruptor” overseeing HHS.

“The only way that Bobby Kennedy and I will get crosswise is if does actually take a position against the safety of proven vaccines,” Tillis aid. “That will be a problem for me.”

Ahead of the committee hearing, one key vote remained in question: Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana physician who sits on the finance committee that voted on Kennedy’s confirmation. Last week, during Kennedy’s nomination hearings, Cassidy repeatedly implored Kennedy to reject a disproven theory that vaccines cause autism, to no avail. He ended the hearing by saying he was “struggling” with the vote.

“Your past, undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments, concerns me,” Cassidy told Kennedy.

On Monday evening, Cassidy told reporters that he had “very cordial” conversations with Kennedy over the weekend but was “still working through” how to handle his vote. On Tuesday, Cassidy voted in favor of Kennedy.

Democrats, meanwhile, continue to raise alarms about Kennedy’s potential to financially benefit from changing vaccine guidelines or weakening federal lawsuit protections against vaccine makers if confirmed as health secretary.

“It seems possible that many different types of vaccine-related decisions and communications — which you would be empowered to make and influence as Secretary — could result in significant financial compensation for your family,” Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in a letter sent over the weekend to Kennedy.

Kennedy said he’ll give his son all of the referral fees in legal cases against vaccine makers, including the fees he gets from referring clients in a case against Merck. Kennedy told the committee he’s referred hundreds of clients to a law firm that’s suing Merck’s Gardasil, the human papillomavirus vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. He’s earned $2.5 million from the deal over the past three years.

As secretary, Kennedy will oversee vaccine recommendations and public health campaigns for the $1.7 trillion agency, which is also responsible for food and hospital inspections, providing health insurance for millions of Americans and researching deadly diseases.

Kennedy’s allies are still holding out hope that they could entice a Democrat or two to their side. A pressure campaign has been focused on Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who has expressed support for Kennedy’s push to make American foods more healthy. Pennsylvania’s Democratic Sen. John Fetterman has also been a focus, although he told Fox News Channel this weekend that the nomination was “challenging.”

A Democratic-led opposition campaign, built around Kennedy’s anti-vaccine advocacy and influence in Samoa during a measles outbreak that left dozens of children and infants dead in 2019, has also narrowed in on Republican Sen. John Curtis, who represents Utah, home to one of the nation’s largest Samoan populations.

The Senate finance committee, made up of 25 senators, votef on whether to recommend Kennedy for a vote on the Senate floor, where all 100 senators will have the chance to vote on the nomination.

The committee vote is a strong indicator of where things are headed for Kennedy, but it’s not necessarily the final word. 

Ahead of the full Senate vote, Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky were all also seen as potential no votes, too, because they voted against Trump’s defense secretary nominee and have expressed concerns about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine work.

Cassidy also could potentially vote against Kennedy’s final confirmation even though he voted in favor of him Tuesday.

Kennedy, a longtime Democrat, ran for president but withdrew last year to throw his support to Trump in exchange for an influential job in his Republican administration. Together, they have forged a new and unusual coalition made up of conservatives who oppose vaccines and liberals who want to see the government promote healthier foods. Trump and Kennedy have branded the movement as “Make America Healthy Again.”