Mike Pence’s Dark Money Group and Leonard Leo’s Baffling Strategy to Tank Kennedy Confirmation Over Abortion
Advancing American Freedom published a letter urging the Senate to reject Kennedy.
Written by Walker Bragman Published: 1/31/25
This piece has been updated from its original email version.
The Senate confirmation hearings for Health and Human Services hopeful Robert Kennedy Jr. began on Wednesday. Perhaps Trump’s most controversial pick, Kennedy is known for his anti-vaccine and conspiratorial views about science and public health.
The nomination by President Trump has been met with firm opposition from medical and public health experts concerned with Kennedy’s unscientific views since it was announced in November. A staggering seventy-five Noble laureates wrote an open letter against Kennedy last month while over 17,000 doctors have signed a similar letter from the Committee to Protect Health Care. Another coalition of doctors and scientists called Defending Public Health submitted over 3,500 letters urging senators to block the conspiracy theorist’s ascension to the nation’s top public health job.
Not all of the opposition Kennedy faces comes from medical experts. Another group affiliated with Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, has also been pushing back against the nomination. Pence’s dark money group, Advancing American Freedom, is trying to undermine Kennedy—and do so with the help of conservative legal activist Leonard Leo, known as Donald Trump’s judge whisperer.
Last week, Politico reported that Leo’s group, CRC Advisors was helping publicize a $250,000 campaign by AAF to convince GOP senators to vote against Kennedy. An anti-Kennedy ad was posted by Pence’s group this week on its website. It is just a video of Donald Trump from the 2024 campaign calling Robert Kennedy Jr. a “Democrat plant; a radical left liberal,” and accusing him of being more liberal than any Democrat running. Trump called Kennedy “totally anti-gun” and an “environmentalist,” “anti-military,” and “anti-vet,” declaring, “I’d even take Biden over Junior.”
The ad concludes with a fade to black and big white text reading, “President Trump was right the first time. Vote NO on RFK Jr.”
Earlier this month, AAF put out a letter opposing the conspiracy theorist’s nomination, citing his past stances on abortion.
“We strongly encourage you to reject the nomination of any pro-abortion nominees to serve at HHS. RFK Jr., as well as any other nominated HHS Secretary, must be able to provide satisfactory answers to the list of important pro-life questions attached to this letter,” AAF’s anti-Kennedy letter concluded. “The pro-life movement has a strong bench of courageous pro-life leaders who are willing to serve the American people as the head of HHS.”
Pence founded AAF as a 501(c)(4) social welfare group in the spring of 2021, several months after his term as vice president ended. At the time, there was speculation that he might have presidential ambitions.
The group’s aim was to “promote the pro-freedom policies of the last four years that created unprecedented prosperity at home and restored respect for America abroad, to defend those policies from liberal attacks and media distortions, and to prevent the radical Left from enacting its policy agenda that would threaten America’s freedoms.” AAF’s position on abortion is hardly surprising. Pence is a Catholic-turned-evangelical, has been a staunch opponent of abortion rights for years, and the organization itself, according to the Center for Media and Democracy’s SourceWatch database, is connected to the secretive Christian Right group, Council for National Policy. AAF’s board members and advisory board members are linked to CNP as “guest speakers, members, board members, or executive committee members.”
Pence’s organization also has ties to Leo, who is also an abortion opponent. Leo’s Concord Fund gave AAF $2 million between 2020 and 2022.
But the decision by to work with Pence has journalists like David Armiak confused. Armiak, who works for the Center for Media and Democracy, called the alliance “one of the weirdest things that has happened since Trump came into office.”
“You have $1.6 billion,” Armiak said of Leo. “You could pay everyone. You could make your own group, and you give it to one of Trump’s enemies to influence Trump?”
Armiak noted that Trump’s relationship with his former vice president has chilled significantly since January 2021 when Pence refused to reject the electoral college vote indicating Biden had won the 2020 election. Trump and his team had a plan to overturn the results that hinged on Pence. The defeated president had put pressure on his running mate during a speech on January 6, calling on him to “do the right thing” before his supporters had stormed the U.S. Capitol. During the insurrection, some called to hang the vice president.
The tension between Trump and his former VP has been palpable over the last month. Pence’s wife remained seated while her husband greeted Trump at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral service and did not attend his inauguration. Trump also pledged not to hire anyone tied to Pence.
Armiak questioned why Leo would ally himself with someone Trump has animosity towards when he has other avenues of influence available to him.
“Leo worked with Trump,” Armiak told Important Context. “He was in charge of choosing appointments for the Supreme Court and federal judges. He could just call Trump himself. He could buy a bunch of Trump coin. Withdraw your nominee.”
“I just don’t get why Pence’s group is the group,” said Armiak.
Abortion access is a critical public health issue. Studies have shown that states with restrictive abortion policies have higher maternal mortality rates and worse health outcomes for women. Additionally, in the months after the United States Supreme Court struck down the landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a right to abortion under the auspices of constitutional privacy protections, hundreds more infants died per month than expected.
Kennedy’s position on abortion has been fluid. In 2023, as an independent presidential candidate, he said he would support a 15-week abortion ban only to then turn around and claim he misspoke. His campaign told the Washington Post that “Mr. Kennedy supports a woman's right to choose” and that “he believes the issue of late-term abortions is being used to artificially divide the American public.”
As a presidential candidate, RFK Jr. expressed support for abortion on-demand up until birth, a position completely out of step with the strong, pro-life record of the first Trump Administration,” read the January 14 letter. “While RFK Jr. has made certain overtures to pro-life leaders that he would be mindful of their concerns at HHS, there is little reason for confidence at this time.”
”Practically speaking, these are exceedingly rare, and almost always done in situations of medical emergency,” the campaign’s email read. “While they are both tragic and disturbing, Mr. Kennedy believes it is not up to the government to intervene in these difficult medical and moral choices. That should be left up to the woman and her doctor.”
During his confirmation hearings, however, Kennedy pledged to implement “whatever” policy Trump wants on the abortion pill, mifepristone.
Kennedy has drifted rightward over the years. His independent campaign was bolstered by his alliances with right-wing political operatives, including Steve Bannon and Brownstone Institute founder Jeffrey Tucker. His eventual team-up with Donald Trump in apparent exchange for a cabinet position atop the Department of Health and Human Services was a natural progression. Last May, for example, he came out against gender-affirming care and hormone therapy for minors—a contentious issue for the political right. He was named HHS pick several months later, in November.
