Democrats Float Impeaching RFK Jr. Even as They Court the MAHA Voters Who Still Stand With Him

Democrats who take control of Congress in January are openly weighing whether to impeach Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Associated Press reported Friday, even as many of the same lawmakers try to win over the Make America Healthy Again voters who remain loyal to him ^[1].

Kennedy's department has answered impeachment talk before. When Rep. Haley Stevens of Michigan filed articles of impeachment against him last December, an HHS spokesman dismissed the move as partisan and said the secretary was focused on improving Americans' health and lowering costs ^[3]. That effort was filed in a Republican-led House where, as Colorado Politics noted at the time, it had little chance of advancing ^[3].

Who is talking impeachment

According to the AP, Kennedy will be one of the new majority's top oversight targets, with critics pointing to his overhaul of long-standing vaccine guidance and cuts to medical research over the past two years ^[1]. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, in line to lead the Senate committee that oversees HHS, has said he is "absolutely open" to impeachment, the AP reported ^[1]. FoodNavigator reported that Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina has also either called for impeachment or said he is open to it ^[2].

Not every Democrat is eager. The AP found that the party's outreach to MAHA activists could collide with an impeachment drive, noting that many of those activists still regard Kennedy as their closest ally in Washington ^[1]. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine told the outlet that whether colleagues pursue impeachment is out of her hands ^[1].

The record the critics leave out

The movement Kennedy leads has changed policy well beyond the Beltway. KFF Health News reported that 18 states are blocking food stamp purchases of soda and candy in 2026 under federal waivers, and that roughly 75 bills targeting artificial food dyes were introduced in 37 states in 2025 ^[4]. At a MAHA rally in March, Kennedy pledged that petroleum-based synthetic food dyes would be gone by the end of this year, FoodNavigator-USA reported ^[5].

Those kitchen-table changes help explain why Democrats, according to the AP, now find themselves courting his supporters even while debating his removal ^[1].

A high constitutional bar

The Constitution allows impeachment of civil officers for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors, not for disagreements over policy. Cabinet impeachments have been rare since the first, of War Secretary William Belknap in 1876, Colorado Politics noted this week, and no Cabinet member has ever been removed by the Senate ^[6]. The most recent completed case, against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024, ended when the Senate dismissed the charges ^[6].

Arguments over vaccine schedules and research budgets have traditionally been settled in hearings, appropriations bills and elections. Kennedy's supporters will be watching whether the new majority keeps the fight there.

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What comes next

The new Congress is sworn in in January, when Democrats take the gavels of the committees that oversee HHS ^[1]. No impeachment resolution can be filed in that Congress until it convenes, and party leaders have not said whether they would back one.