Posted on 06/28/2026 7:50:53 AM PDT by Angelino97
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. contacted Libertarian candidates in Iowa, including one congressional candidate whom he encouraged to leave a competitive U.S. House race to help Republicans retain control of Congress, according to a recent report.
In an exclusive published June 25, The Washington Post reported that Kennedy spoke by phone on June 11 with Rick Stewart, the Libertarian candidate in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, during which he said he was acting as a “liaison” with the White House. During the call, Kennedy reportedly argued that Democratic control of the U.S. House would weaken President Donald Trump’s agenda and suggested Stewart could do more through an agreement than through what Kennedy called a “symbolic run” for office.
The call was partially recorded by Stewart and shared with The Washington Post, which included audio from the conversation with its report. While no specific offer was made, the outlet reported that Stewart interpreted the call as an attempted quid pro quo, with Stewart saying he was left with the implication of, “You help us, we’ll help you.” He also said he has no plans to leave the race.
“I’m not planning on leaving the race,” Stewart told the publication. “I’m certainly not pulling out to help my Republican opponent.”
Stewart is currently the Libertarian Party of Iowa’s only congressional candidate still set to appear on the November ballot after the State Objection Panel removed 3rd Congressional District candidate Marco Battaglia and the party’s gubernatorial ticket from the ballot earlier this month. Stewart also faced a challenge over his use of “Rick” on his affidavit of candidacy while some of his nominating petitions used “Richard,” but the panel rejected that objection.
The Washington Post reported that government ethics experts said Kennedy’s outreach was “unethical and potentially illegal,” depending on whether he made any specific promises and whether the calls were made in his official capacity. The Washington Post also reported that Trump political adviser James Blair asked Kennedy to contact Libertarian candidates because he believed they respected him, though one person familiar with the matter said Blair did not tell Kennedy to offer anything in exchange for withdrawing.
Kennedy had already been visible within Libertarian Party circles before joining the Trump administration. While running for president, his campaign worked with the Libertarian National Committee to establish the Kennedy Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee. He also spoke at the party’s 2024 Libertarian National Convention and was briefly considered during the presidential nominating vote before being defeated in the first round, though some Libertarians later asked state affiliates to consider placing him and running mate Nicole Shanahan on Libertarian ballot lines in place of the party’s nominated ticket of Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat.
Kennedy reportedly declined to comment when reached by phone, referring questions to a spokesperson who did not respond. The White House and Department of Health and Human Services also did not respond to questions from The Washington Post, including whether Kennedy’s calls had been cleared by lawyers, whether he had been asked to make them, and how many candidates he had contacted.
The report also said Kennedy had called Battaglia several days earlier. Battaglia told The Washington Post that Kennedy similarly warned him the House could flip to Democrats if he stayed in the race and that Kennedy “leaned on” him to drop out. Battaglia said he considered the request before declining.
Unlike Stewart, Battaglia was removed from the ballot after Republicans successfully challenged his use of the name Marco Battaglia, rather than his legal name, Mark T. Anderson. The Libertarian Party of Iowa said earlier this month that it plans to contest that decision, and the national Libertarian Party has pledged support for the state party’s ballot-access fight. The Libertarian gubernatorial ticket has separately filed a petition for judicial review in Polk County District Court.
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MAHA has been a roll lately.
Julia Letlow beat Bill Cassidy (the most Big Pharma/Anti-MAHA Senator) in Louisiana and then won her runoff against John Fleming yesterday. Letlow was endorsed by Trump, but:
In Iowa, the MAHA candidate Zach Lahn beat Trump-endorsed Randy Feenstra, who is pro-pesticide.
Iowa governor primary (R) ^
I wonder which house Bernie is living in this week?
What’s wrong with that? 🙄
I don’t see anything wrong with that myself. RFK JR has credibility in the Libertarian population, and it would be worthwhile because all the Libertarian is going to do is to split the vote.
I personally have a low opinion of Libertarians, with exceptions. But third party candidates disproportionally harm conservatives.
Leftists will vote for Leftists, but few will vote for Libertarians.
I personally have a low opinion of Libertarians, with exceptions. But third party candidates disproportionally harm conservatives.
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Bears repeating! LOSETARIANS
The Losertarians are nothing but spoilers now. I have lost count of how many times they have taken their 3-4% and handed an election to a rat. Often their candidate is rat operative financed by the Dems or a surrogate.
I know people who classify themselves as libertarians, but when I talk to them, they are by most measures,conservatives. They simply refuse to identify as anything other than a libertarian due to a variety of things that are notimportant to me.
And, I have also talked to libertarians, who are nothing more than anarchists, which to me, makes them leftists. And some of them support things that I consider unsupportable and destructive to Society.
All that said, I do find it sometimes difficult not to side with libertarians who say they simply want the government to leave them alone as they live their life.
However, to me, that is a fundamental tenant of conservatism.
We, as conservatives, simply believe that government should have specific constitutionally delineated functions…In contrast to what we see today where government has control over, nearly all functions from how much water your toilet can use when flushing, and what kind of lightbulbs you can use in your house…and isn’t shy about enforcing them.
Libertarians are as bad as Communists.
(For some reason, a Libertarian with 6.5% of the vote handing Dem McAullife a narrow victory in Virginia some year's back comes to mind)
“ All that said, I do find it sometimes difficult not to side with libertarians who say they simply want the government to leave them alone as they live their life.
However, to me, that is a fundamental tenant of conservatism.”
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If they “simply want the government to leave them alone” they should not HELP ELECT DEMOCRATS by WASTING THEIR VOTE,
A quarter century ago I was briefly a card carrying Libertarian and happened to live in the same town as the state party chairman. He was a hardcore constitutionalist who carried a pocket copy of the Constitution around with him. How many leftists do that? When I attended one of the state Libertarian functions it was basically a bunch of grumpy old guys who thought the Republicans were too limpwristed in keeping the government in check.
Check out the front page of the TN Libertarian party website:
They explicitly state their agreement with political conservatism and disagreement with progressivism.
And here's the current party platform of the Libertarian Party of Alabama. I'd say the general tilt is conservative:
That is 100% unadulterated stupidity.
The catch about the Libertarian party is that if their platform succeeded, conservatism would be killed and ended, the radical left parts would make the conservative parts of the platform impossible, for example opening the borders and ending the Border Patrol and immigration control, and the total open America of drugs and perversion, etc., for decades they have even refused to condemn pedophilia, because of free market forces and the kids rights.
When someone tells me they are a libertarian, I usually reserve judgement until they speak a little more. I can generally tolerate with equanimity Libertarians who are mostly conservative.
I cannot stomach Libertarians who bend towards Leftism and Anarchy.
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