The ‘MAHA Moms’ Behind Kennedy

By Jennifer Galardi, Special to The Kennedy Beacon

You might call them Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s secret protectors. They go by the name “MAHA moms” and their crusade is clear: to Make America Healthy Again.

They are part of a group of tens of thousands of mothers across the country who have played an outsized role in supporting Kennedy’s run, first for the presidency and now for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Many are everyday mothers who care deeply about the country’s health and wellness. Joined by female celebrities and influences, these women (and some men) pack a powerful punch. Among the most recognizable names behind the movement: Jillian Michaels (The Biggest Loser), Max Lugvere (bestselling author and social media influencer), Vani Harari (The Food Babe), and of course, Joe Rogan, have all helped catapult Kennedy’s status as a political rockstar.

While familiar faces and popular voices certainly helped to push Kennedy’s alternative and sometimes controversial ideas into the mainstream conversation, it has been the unsung heroes of the movement who have created the grassroots groundswell.

It could even be said that dedicated mothers were the precursor to the MAHA movement. They were raising a ruckus about vaccines, food additives, and chemically treated produce before Kennedy arrived on the scene. In fact, it was mothers who first attracted him to the health arena.

Kennedy often recounts the story of how, as an environmental lawyer, he would go around the country to talk about the lawsuits he was litigating on behalf of Waterkeepers Alliance, an activist group he led until 2020. He would notice “well-dressed women of similar age [who] sat in the front rows of the venues, listened attentively and afterward approached him for a brief but impassioned conversation,” according to Dick Russell’s book,The Real RFK Jr. Trials of a Truth Warrior. Kennedy described the women approaching him as “very talented, eloquent, articulate, and generally respectful,” but also, "mildly scolding.” These are the women who told him he was on the right track with mercury levels in water, but completely missed the mark when it came to the same toxicity in vaccines.

This was Kennedy’s first interaction with the moms that would eventually catapult him to the position he is in now ––on the precipice of leading one of the largest agencies in the U.S. government, responsible for overseeing the health of millions of Americans.

Zen Honeycutt is one of the behind-the-scenes moms. She met Kennedy over ten years ago while working on the case he litigated against Monsanto. Honeycutt began the activist group Mom’s Across America, which, according to its website, is “a national coalition of unstoppable moms” and believes empowered moms equate to healthy kids.

Like many activists, Honeycutt's passion for the cause was fueled by her personal story. Honeycutt began advocating for children’s health because her children were all sick. “They had 20 different food allergies, autoimmune issues, asthma, one even had autism symptoms,” Honeycutt told The Kennedy Beacon. She stumbled upon a TedX talk from in 2012 entitled “Patriotism on a Plate,” and a movie called “Genetic Roulette” from Robyn O’Brien and Jeffrey Smith respectively, two of the earliest pioneers in the food safety movement. Shehad to do something.

Honeycutt started by passing out flyers during Prop 37, the 2012 initiative that required mandatory labeling for GMO’s in California.

“I did not want to be an activist,” Honeycutt says. “But when I learned the extensiveness of the betrayal of the government in allowing GMO’s into our food supply without being labeled, I was deeply disturbed. It was the Matrix moment for me.”

She decided to take a bigger leadership role after her son, Ben, encouraged her to persist despite the disappointing defeat of Prop 37. “Even Star Wars took six episodes,” he consoled her.

That was the inspiration Honeycutt needed to take the first steps towards Moms Across America in 2013. “My actions will contribute to transforming the food industry,” she said.

And they have. The organization is one of the largest advocates for food and vaccine safety in the country, reaching millions of moms over multiple platforms including media and in person events. The group initiated the first glyphosate testing in America and found the substance in tap water, urine, and breast milk. Her work trying to ban GMO’s introduced her to Kennedy while he was working on his successful lawsuit against Monsanto in 2018. Kennedy would become an advisor to MAA.

Honeycutt says she deeply appreciates Kennedy’s “integrity, compassion, and commitment to our children” and is blown away by his courage to stand up to Big Pharma, Big Ag and the censorship machines. “He’s really putting himself at risk and that type of dedication can only inspire the nationwide movement that has formed,” noted Honeycutt. “We show up for him because he has shown up for us.”

Between the time when President Trump nominated Kennedy to lead HHS, and his confirmation hearings last week, Honeycutt has met with over thirty congressional offices and passed out flyers to even more. She says her organization also urged thousands of calls to congressional offices – culminating in the almost 600 calls per minute that inundated the congressional lines and reportedly, at one point, shut down the system.

On her podcast, Megyn Kelly, the popular media host, thanked Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) “whose office we targeted, there’s no question, in a totally legit way.” Continued Kelly, “You guys all called, you made it so that that phone line was basically no longer good because you kept calling. As a mom of three young children, the ex-Fox News host has been supportive of Kennedy and was one of the first to offer him a platform to speak in 2022 when everyone else had cancelled him due to his criticism of the Covid vaccines.

In a statement explaining his vote, Cassidy confirmed he was indeed inundated with not only phone calls, but texts and emails. “If I didn’t respond to anyone, it was not to be rude, it’s just I was getting hundreds of messages a day, personally, and thousands through the office, and I just physically could not.”

“That’s what people do when someone is willing to be of service for them,” Honeycutt said.

Kennedy’s influence has permeated well beyond America’s borders. Chloe Angeline, a mother in Alberta, Canada, who goes by “SelfHealingMomma” on Instagram, believes that Kennedy taps into a cultural shift that restores mothers as the most valuable asset to society. She calls mothers unifying around health “the greatest comeback story of the century.”

“This is about mothers taking back their rights over their children and having a voice,” says Angeline. “I believe you’re going to see tremendous shifts in the education system, the medical system, obviously the food system,” she continued. “Mothers are going to [rise] to the occasion. We are raising the next generation. That’s why these mothers are here.”

Angeline believes the uprising propelling Kennedy to the top spot in the U.S. health bureaucracy was pioneered by mothers like Honeycutt. Because of Kennedy’s success with environmental activism “mothers were coming to him over and over and over,” she says, begging him to do some research and help them. She hopes to band together mothers in Canada to initiate the same shift in her country as in the U.S. "Politically, Canada tends to follow the United States,” says Angeline. “We’re kind of like your little sister that follows you even when it’s kind of annoying.”

Tanya Tay Posobiec is not originally from the States, either. When she arrived here in 2007, she realized she took fresh food for granted. She couldn’t simply go outside and pick her daily food from the garden as she did back in Belarus with her grandmother. It was “garden to table,” before you had to pay “incredible amounts of money” for fresh food, she told the Beacon. She always considered herself a healthy person, but becoming a mom changed her. “Now I have these little humans in my life that I have to educate and help them become the [best] version of themselves. It’s my responsibility to enlist healthy habits from a very early age.”

And while she expresses excitement for Kennedy’s potential appointment, she says, “to rely solely on the leadership is a mistaken idea.” She believes, “as a mom, it’s my responsibility first and foremost to create the habits.” Then, she says mothers can raise their voices so that elected officials cannot ignore them and policy follows suit. But Posobiec knows it’s a slow game. She says it took the government 35 years to get red food dye out of foods.

Added Posobiec: “As a mom you can make a choice to check the labels and see what’s healthier and you can make this your policy at home” –– before waiting for the FDA and other agencies to do anything.

While all three mothers are optimistic Kennedy will be confirmed, Honeycutt says the fight is far from over. Just this week, bills are being pushed through state legislatures to grant immunity to agriculture companies, like the pharmaceutical companies, that would prevent people from filing lawsuits against them. She is doing her best to raise awareness and activate MAHA advocates within states like Mississippi and Illinois to call their state senators and encourage them to reject this legislation.

“We just want to see these businesses be accountable for their products, to be responsible for safe products,” she said. “The interests of the corporations should not precede our children’s safety. Period.”