Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged a Libertarian congressional candidate in Iowa to drop out of a competitive House race to help Republicans keep control of Congress, according to an audio recording of the conversation obtained by The Washington Post.
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During the call, Kennedy said he was acting as a “liaison” with the White House, argued that a Democratic takeover of the House would undermine President Donald Trump’s agenda and suggested that he could help the candidate if he left the race. He also suggested that the candidate could “make an agreement” that would accomplish more than a “symbolic run” for office.
“I can’t go into specifics because there’s legal prohibitions about that,” Kennedy told Rick Stewart, a Libertarian candidate running in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, in a June 11 call. “If it’s something that you want to talk about, you know, you and I can talk about specifics.”
Kennedy’s phone call was at least his second to an Iowa congressional candidate this month, according to Libertarian politicians in the state.
Government ethics experts said Kennedy’s apparent intervention in the Iowa races was unethical and potentially illegal, depending on whether he promised candidates specific favors and whether he made the calls in his capacity as a Cabinet official, among other factors.
Danielle Caputo, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan voters’ rights group, said Kennedy should not have gotten involved in the congressional races, even if it may be difficult to prove that his actions violated federal laws such as the Hatch Act, which is intended to prevent federal officials from interfering in elections.
“The public should have the opportunity to make a decision on who they want to represent them. And government officials should not be tipping the scales, behind the scenes, in favor of a specific candidate by getting other candidates to drop out,” Caputo said. “At the end of the day, it’s the voter — and the public — who generally lose in that situation.”
Stewart, a 74-year-old who has previously run as a Libertarian in other Iowa races, said in an interview that he interpreted Kennedy’s roughly 12-minute call as an attempt at quid pro quo. No specific offer was made, but the message was clear, he said.
“He was very careful about the words that he used, but the whole implication is: You help us, we’ll help you,” Stewart said. “They want to get me out because I might pick up 2 or 3 percent — and if I pick up 2 or 3 percent, they think it’ll come out of the Republican pocket.”
Stewart said he has no plan to exit the race.
Reached by phone Thursday, Kennedy declined to comment and referred questions to a spokesperson, who did not immediately respond.
The call was recorded by Stewart and shared with The Post.
Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District is one of the battleground districts that could swing control of the House in November’s election. The Cook Political Report, which provides nonpartisan election analysis, rates the district as leaning Republican.
The White House has increasingly focused on the midterms, aware that Democrats are eager to open investigations of Trump and his policies if they reclaim a chamber of Congress — which comes with the power to subpoena federal officials. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee this week signaled their plan to investigate Kennedy’s changes to vaccine policies, moves to unwind public health programs and other controversial moves if they take back the majority.
In his call with Stewart, Kennedy appeared to allude to this possibility.
“I don’t want to be fighting subpoenas for the next two years instead of improving America’s health,” Kennedy told the congressional candidate. “For me, you know, there’s an immediate pragmatic reason for this phone call.”
Republican advisers have said the party must defend some normally safe congressional seats amid the president’s low poll numbers, rising costs for Americans and the unpopular war with Iran.
Trump and his deputies have warned that if Democrats flip one or both chambers of Congress, it will pose an existential threat — not just to the president’s policies, but to the nation.
“We’ve got to do great in the midterms,” Trump said at a Rose Garden event last month. “And if we don’t, they will do everything they can to destroy our country.”
Kennedy’s outreach to Stewart followed a June 8 call with Marco Battaglia, the Libertarian candidate in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, in which Kennedy also warned that the House could flip for Democrats if Battaglia stayed in the race, Battaglia said. The call was not recorded, he said.
The Cook Political Report rates the 3rd District contest as a toss-up.
Kennedy “leaned on me slightly to drop out,” Battaglia said, adding that he thought about it before declining. “‘I don’t think your father and uncle would want me to drop out of the race,’” he said he told the health secretary, invoking Kennedy’s father, former attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, and former president John F. Kennedy, his uncle.
Battaglia provided screenshots of phone calls with a phone number that has been used by Kennedy. Politico and the Des Moines Register previously reported Kennedy’s conversation with Battaglia.
Past Cabinet secretaries have been reprimanded for appearing to wield their influence over electoral battles. Then-Health Secretary Xavier Becerra was reprimanded in 2023 when the Office of Special Counsel, which administers the Hatch Act, found that he had violated the law in advocating at a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute event for the election of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California).
“The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using their official authority or influence to affect the outcome of an election,” then-special counsel Henry J. Kerner said at the time.
The Hatch Act bars federal officials from interfering in or affecting an election. Some past officials who have become involved in elections have defended their conduct by saying they were acting in their personal capacities.
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“The Hatch Act doesn’t strictly prohibit federal officials from endorsing candidates so long as they’re not on official duty or using official resources to do it,” said Stanley Brand, a lawyer and distinguished fellow in law and government at Penn State’s law school.
There are no criminal sanctions associated with Hatch Act violations, and it usually rests with the president on whether to mete out any discipline, Brand added. He said it is possible that Kennedy may have violated other protections, such as a criminal statute that bars government employees from using their authority to interfere with federal elections, and a criminal statute that bars promises of employment or other benefits in exchange for political activity.
The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to questions about whether Kennedy’s calls were cleared by administration lawyers, whether he was asked to make them by White House officials, and how many calls he has made to candidates.
Iowa has emerged as a potential bellwether state ahead of November’s elections, with election analysts viewing the office of the governor, as well as Senate and House seats, as potential pickups for Democrats. Trump has won the state in each of his three campaigns for president, but he is not on this year’s ballot. Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa), a Trump-backed candidate for governor, lost his primary earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Rob Sand, a Democrat and Iowa’s state auditor who is running for governor, is seen as a candidate who could help boost the chances of downballot Democrats this year.
“In 2018 and 2006, Democrats’ gains in Iowa were key to their success,” said Amy Walter, editor in chief of the Cook Political Report, referencing two past election cycles when Democrats flipped control of the House during a Republican president’s term in office.
Libertarians, meanwhile, have made inroads in Iowa in recent years, campaigning on messages such as marijuana decriminalization, marriage equality and criminal justice reform. Gary Johnson, the party’s presidential candidate in 2016, won nearly 4 percent of the vote in Iowa that year, elevating the Libertarian Party to official political-party status in the state.
“The Libertarian Party gives a voice to voters who don’t see themselves reflected in either major party and serves as a check on a political system that too often assumes Americans only have two choices,” said Stephanie Berlin, chair of the Libertarian Party in Iowa.
Kennedy’s outreach to the Libertarian candidates follows his complicated dealings with the Libertarian Party, including during his 2024 presidential campaign, when he initially ran as a Democrat before becoming an independent and seeking the Libertarian nomination, which he did not receive. Kennedy in August 2024 then endorsed Trump, who later rewarded him by picking Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Some Libertarians have said Kennedy’s alliance with Trump betrayed their party’s principles.
On his June 11 call with Stewart, Kennedy said that White House officials were tracking the Iowa 2nd District race and were particularly worried about losing control of the House, Stewart said in an interview, referring to a portion of the call that was unrecorded.
Both Stewart and Battaglia told The Post that Kennedy’s calls to them were preceded by unexpected outreach from their Republican counterparts in their respective congressional races. Stewart said that Joe Mitchell, the Republican nominee in Iowa’s 2nd District, first asked to meet with him and they had a lengthy conversation.
“He did the same thing — he wanted me to pull out because he’s afraid I’ll take votes away from him,” Stewart said.
A spokesperson for Mitchell said the GOP candidate “would love to have the support of anyone” who would help him defeat the Democrat in the race.
“That includes Rick Stewart and any liberty-minded individual,” Drew Johns, Mitchell’s campaign manager, said in a statement. Mitchell and his campaign did not immediately respond to questions about whether his outreach to Stewart was coordinated with the White House.
Speaking to Kennedy a few days later, Stewart told the health secretary that he was skeptical that a Republican would solve the problems facing his congressional district.
Kennedy responded by comparing Stewart’s situation to his own decision in 2024 when he struck a deal to support Trump.
“The question for you is not whether a Republican is going to solve any of the problems that you’re dealing with, that you’re concerned about,” Kennedy said. “Or whether you may be able to solve more problems in a different position than going in and winning 3 or 4 percent of an election.”
Stewart, a longtime businessman and former law enforcement officer who won more than 2 percent of the vote when he ran for Senate in 2020 and Iowa governor in 2022, told The Post that he was not swayed by Kennedy’s pitch.
“I’m not planning on leaving the race,” Stewart said. “I’m certainly not pulling out to help my Republican opponent.”
He said there was only one offer that might have worked: being chosen as head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, a post known as the nation’s “drug czar.” Stewart said that if he was named to the post, which is currently filled by a Trump appointee, he would declare an end to the federal “war on drugs” and work to dismantle federal prosecution of personal drug use.
“If they offered me that drug czar position in writing and couldn’t fire me for two years, I’d be tempted,” Stewart said.
Reena Flores, Isaac Arnsdorf and Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.
