One day after Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis launched a nationwide initiative aimed at protecting state powers and democratic institutions in the wake of the Trump administration, he appeared to enthusiastically endorse President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial cabinet pick of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services Secretary in a post on X that received more than 6.4 million views by Thursday night.
Polis’ endorsement led to immediate pushback from Democrats and those in Colorado’s public health community. Kennedy is a former presidential candidate and anti-vaccine activist.
The governor later clarified that he disagreed with Kennedy on many issues.
“I just think it's really irresponsible and disappointing,” said Democratic Sen. Kyle Mullica of Polis’s endorsement of Kennedy.
Mullica was also upset that Polis mischaracterized the 2019 legislation he sponsored in his original post saying “(Kennedy) helped us defeat vaccine mandates in Colorado in 2019 and will help make America healthy again by shaking up HHS and FDA.”
An ER nurse, Mullica was the main sponsor of a bill in 2019 to tighten Colorado’s vaccine exemption process. It was not a vaccine mandate and still allowed for personal belief exemptions. At the time, Colorado had the country’s lowest kindergarten vaccination rate for measles-mumps-rubella. Kennedy opposed the bill and met with Polis about it.
Mullica accused Polis of spreading misinformation, saying the governor should be standing up for science and standing up for public health experts.
“And I'll tell you now, RFK Jr. is not an expert,” Mullica told CPR News. “He is not a scientist. He is someone who has figured out how to profit off of this misinformation and who really likes all the attention that comes along with it. And I think that it's just a sad day.”
The head of the Colorado Democratic Party Shad Murib also weighed in after Polis made his endorsement with a one-word response on X: “Welp”.
The state party said in a press release that Colorado is one of the healthiest states and believes in evidence-based health policies.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been credibly accused of sexual assault and consistently undermines trust in science using his personal beliefs and conspiracy theories as evidence,” Murib said in a statement.
Susan Lontine is the Executive Director of Immunize Colorado and a former Democratic state lawmaker. She said while her organization hopes to work with Polis in the next legislative session to move the ball forward on good public policy, she strongly opposes Kennedy’s nomination to lead Health and Human Services.
“We’re disappointed and concerned by Gov. Polis’ support of RFK Jr.'s appointment,” she told CPR News.
She chaired the House Health and Human Services Committee from 2019-2022.
“We should be following the science and the science is clear,” she said. “Vaccines save lives and creating distrust is harmful to public health, and when you spread false information, misinformation and disinformation it undermines public trust and that is bad for public health.”
HHS operates 13 divisions and 10 agencies and administers a wide variety of health and human services. The list includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
Polis doubles down and also addresses pushback
In his endorsement post on X, Polis highlighted why he thought Kennedy was the right pick. He said he’s optimistic Kennedy could take on big pharma and the “corporate ag (sic) oligopoly to improve the health system.”
“I hope he leans into personal choice on vaccines rather than bans (which I think are terrible, just like mandates),” Polis wrote on X.
Polis said he supports some of Kennedy’s goals such as capping drug costs and leveling the playing field on drug costs internationally. Polis backs the importation of low-cost prescription drugs.
“Colorado currently has an application just SITTING at FDA for us to import low-cost prescription drugs from Canada and we just need their approval.”
The governor also said he agrees with Kennedy that the FDA’s nutrition department has to go and isn’t protecting kids.
“The entire nutrition regime is dominated by big corporate ag (sic) rather than human health and they do more harm than good,” said Polis.
A spokesman for the Governor reiterated in a statement provided to CPR that, despite his endorsement, Polis still opposes Kennedy’s stances on a host of issues such as “unscientific propaganda that undermines confidence in the lifesaving impact of vaccines” and banning fluoridation.
“Lest there be any doubt, I am vaccinated as is my family. I will hold any HHS Secretary to the same high standard of protecting and improving public health,” Polis wrote in an additional post explaining his endorsement.
Polis’ history with Kennedy dates back to at least 2019 when they discussed the proposal to tighten Colorado’s vaccine opt-out provisions. Colorado Health Choice Alliance, a group that opposes government vaccination requirements, lobbied strongly against the measure and brought large crowds to testify in opposition at public hearings. The group facilitated the meeting.
The bill failed when Polis said he wouldn’t sign it. However, that summer he signed an executive order to outline policies he hoped would increase Colorado’s kindergarten vaccination rate while hoping to, as he described it, “honor the rights of parents.”
The following year Polis signed a different version of the 2019 bill into law. Polis has long supported increasing immunization rates but not necessarily the approach taken by many other Democrats and public health experts.
"The minute you try to have the government forcing anybody to do something with their kids, you're going to create distrust of vaccinations, which is already a problem," he told CPR’s Colorado Matters in an interview at the time. "We want to go the other way."
Dr. David Higgins is a pediatrician at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and sits on the board of Immunize Colorado. While he agrees with Polis that health leaders should be working hard to build public trust, he said that includes not promoting false claims.
“We do know that vaccine requirements in places like schools or hospitals are really important to preventing the spread of disease to protecting vulnerable people and kids,” he said.
Higgins said he finds Polis’ endorsement surprising, disappointing and concerning given Kennedy’s history of spreading false information and conspiracies about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
