MAHA Midterm Wipeout Pushes Anti-Pesticice Activist Zen Honeycutt Toward Democrats

Zach Lahn, the Iowa gubernatorial nominee backed by nearly $2 million from MAHA-affiliated groups, lost by a wide margin on Tuesday — and Zen Honeycutt, who leads the Moms Across America nonprofit, is already pivoting toward sympathetic Democrats to push her anti-chemical agenda in Washington.

Lahn's defeat in ruby-red Iowa, where Republicans also lost all congressional representation among their women, capped a night in which Democrats took decisive control of both chambers of Congress and voters rejected President Donald Trump's priorities. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had called Lahn's race "the most important election going on in this country today" at a MAHA rally in a Des Moines suburb less than a week before the vote.

Honeycutt, part of the MAHA mom coalition that helped propel Trump back into office in 2024, said the outcome was predictable. "[Trump] stood on the presidential platform and said he would go after pesticides in our food and address autism, childhood chronic illness, cancer and obesity," she told The 19th. "And he shook Bobby Kennedy's hands and said he could go wild — and then did absolutely nothing about it."

What does the election change for pesticide policy?

What it changes, in Honeycutt's telling, is the opportunity. She said legislative staffers for dozens of congressional Democrats privately expressed interest this year in environmental policies aligned with MAHA — including ending the use of the herbicide glyphosate in weedkillers — but lamented Republican-controlled chambers. Come January, that constraint disappears.

"Clearly the Democrats are upset about how things are going, and now they have the time and the opportunity to change things. So let's do it. Let's work together. Let's get this pesticide reform happening," she said. "I'm eager to see the Democrats quickly pass bills and get them to Trump's desk that will make America healthy again."

Honeycutt's group's midterm endorsement list included 33 Republicans, eight Democrats and seven independents. Only about a dozen Republicans on the list won. Every Democrat — all incumbents, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York — won.

Why did MAHA-backed Republicans lose?

Tony Lyons, the book publisher who leads MAHA Action, which endorsed Lahn, blamed money. "MAHA was up against some of the most powerful and best-funded interests in the world," he told supporters via video, claiming MAHA candidates still performed better than most Republicans.

Honeycutt suspects MAHA moms simply stayed home. Conservative wellness influencer Alex Clark echoed that on X: "MAHA moms stayed home and it could've swayed some of these races that were unbearably close. Should've listened to our warnings on protecting glyphosate — but you needed Bayer for the war," she wrote, referencing the administration's perceived support for pesticide companies.

What about Kennedy's future at HHS?

The new Congress brings risk for MAHA's most visible champion. Kennedy has drawn criticism from doctors and medical groups over anti-vaccine rhetoric and politicized research funding. Several Democrats with medical and science backgrounds won seats, including Dr. Annie Andrews of South Carolina, who will be the Senate's first pediatrician and campaigned partly on holding Kennedy accountable over a measles outbreak. Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, who challenged the secretary while courting MAHA voters, also joins the Senate.

Honeycutt called impeachment attempts "extremely unwise." "If you go after Kennedy, you're going to guarantee that the moms in the middle — they're never going to vote for your party. For you or your party, come 2028. Never," she said.

Her agenda is unchanged: pesticide regulation, healthier school food, opposing childhood vaccine requirements and pulling COVID-19 vaccines from the market. She'll work with Democrats issue by issue even without alignment on vaccines, and at least one major strategy meeting between MAHA-minded people and left-leaning groups is planned before year's end. "Moms are not beholden to a political party," she said. "If the Republicans don't get it done, then those votes are up for grabs."

Or, as she added: "Or like we saw in this election, they won't vote."

By Nathan Brooks