Democratic Gov. Jared Polis enthusiastically supports RFK Jr. for health secretary

DENVER — Colorado’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis, immediately cheered President-election Donald Trump’s decision Thursday to pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead America’s health agencies as the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

In a lengthy post on X, Polis said he was “excited by the news,” and a played off Trump’s slogan, writing “make American healthy again.”

Kennedy has a long history of false and misleading claims about vaccines, including that vaccines cause autism, an assertion at odds with the evidence from decades of research. 

It’s quite a change from Polis’s position three months ago, when he referred to Kennedy on X saying he was “Not sure how bringing back Measles and bringing back Polio makes anyone more healthy.”

Democratic State Senator Kyle Mullica told 9NEWS Thursday that he was not on Polis’s side in praising Kennedy’s nomination.

“When we have respected leaders, like our governor giving credibility to that vaccine hesitancy, it puts our communities at risk,” Mullica said.

Part of Polis’s support for Kennedy included the line “He helped us defeat the vaccine mandates in Colorado in 2019.” Legislative records show Kennedy was here testifying against a vaccination bill in 2020. The bill did not mandate vaccines. It was also passed and signed by Polis at a time when Colorado ranked last in school-aged vaccination rates.

“To have it say that we were looking at trying to pass policy that was mandating vaccines is just inaccurate,” Mullica said. 

The bill did provide a non-medical opt-out process for families who did not want their children to be vaccinated. 

“If you looked to exempt your child from vaccines then you had to go through a similar step as if you were going to get your child vaccinated or immunized,” Mullica said.

The bill also called for vaccine transparency from school districts. There are now school immunization data maps on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s website. They show the vaccination rates for diseases like measles, mumps and polio. They also show the exemption rate and non-compliance rate.

The governor’s office sent 9NEWS this statement when asked about Polis’s changing views of Kennedy. 

“Governor Polis has not changed his view as a whole on RFK Jr. or on the Governor’s previously stated concerns regarding some of RFK Jr’s positions. While opposed to RFK’s positions on a host of issues, including vaccines and banning fluoridation, he would appreciate seeing action on pesticides and efforts to lower prescription drug costs and if Trump is going to nominate someone like him then let them also take on soda, processed food, pesticides and heavy metals contamination. But he definitely does not endorse actions that would lead to measles outbreaks and opposes unscientific propaganda that undermines confidence in the lifesaving impact of vaccines. The Governor himself was vaccinated last week with the flu vaccine and the COVID vaccine and he personally encouraged Marshall [Zellinger] to get vaccinated as well.”