Senator Accuses RFK Jr. of Election Interference

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) filed a Hatch Act complaint, accusing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of potential election interference.

In a letter to the Office of Special Counsel calling for an investigation, the Senate Finance Committee’s ranking member said Kennedy interfered in at least two congressional races in Iowa, “baiting and bullying third-party candidates to drop out of their respective races,” with the goal of maintaining a Republican majority in Congress.

“Kennedy has spent 16 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 restricts certain political activities of executive branch employees and some state/local government workers who are involved in federally funded programs, with the aim of ensuring nonpartisan administration of programs, preventing political coercion, and encouraging merit-based employment.

In the letter, Wyden described the two instances of interference, which were first reported by the Washington Post.

In early June, Kennedy called Marco Battaglia, a Libertarian candidate for the House of Representatives in Iowa’s third congressional district.

“If this seat flips, it’ll make my life hell,” Kennedy reportedly told Battaglia. These comments came a day after incumbent Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) visited Battaglia’s home, urging him to drop out of the race and making promises of hanging out with Kennedy.

A few days later, Kennedy called Rick Stewart, another Libertarian candidate for Congress running in Iowa’s second congressional district. Kennedy also asked him to consider dropping out of his race and offered personal assistance with finding another position in government if he agreed to do it.

Stewart recorded Kennedy’s phone call and shared it with the Post.

“I don’t want to be fighting subpoenas for the next 2 years instead of improving America’s health,” Kennedy said during that call.

“Kennedy’s personal desire to avoid congressional scrutiny is not a factor in Iowa’s elections, and his attempts to rig the outcome so that he can personally dodge oversight are despotic,” Wyden wrote in the letter.

He pointed out that the phone call is “precisely the conduct Congress prohibited when it passed the Hatch Act.”

“The quid pro quo offer of federal employment or other personal gain that Kennedy extended to Stewart on the June 11 phone call is conduct expressly prohibited by the Hatch Act, and it also exposes Kennedy to criminal liability under various provisions of federal law,” Wyden noted.

“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,” he added. “He must be stopped, and he must be held accountable.”