MAHA Supporters Say Trump’s Broken Promises Helped Democrats Win

“I think Republicans lost because they listened to the lobbying wing of their party instead of their base,” many of whom care about issues like pesticides, says David Murphy, a former fundraiser for Kennedy’s presidential campaign and founder of the food-system reform organization United We Eat. 

Murphy was among a group of MAHA activists who recently published a MAHA scorecard that listed 42 promises that the Trump Administration had made to “make America healthy again.” According to the scorecard, Trump has kept zero promises, partially fulfilled 5 (including actions related to food dyes), and broken 37 of them. 

“The MAHA coalition was instrumental in helping Trump win based on very specific promises he made to Kennedy…but he has failed to follow through,” Murphy says. “MAHA voters are upset across the country.”

The alliance between the MAHA coalition and Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement has been a tenuous one from the start, strained in part by the close ties that Trump and his allies have to food and chemical industries. Even before the midterms, signs had been mounting of the alliance splintering. Calley Means, a top aide of Kennedy’s, resigned from his position in the Trump Administration on Oct. 22—less than two weeks before the midterms. Means reportedly quit in part over frustrations that the Administration was neglecting MAHA priorities, including work related to ultraprocessed foods. Means did not respond to TIME’s request for comment.