In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread. Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio. A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa. Last year, he lied about it under oath.
Unfortunately, Republican politicians and conservative media figures are increasingly joining up with the anti-vaxxers. Even before COVID, they were fighting vaccine mandates and other public health measures.
Former Representatives. Larry Bucshon, M.D., a Republican from Indiana, and Michael C. Burgess, M.D., a Republican at STAT:
This year, the United States has already recorded more than 4,000 cases, the highest annual total since 1991, along with six related deaths. These numbers are showing no sign of decline.
Voters have certainly noticed — and they’re blaming Republicans. According to a recent KFF poll, more than 60% of voters now disapprove of the Trump administration’s handling of vaccine policy. Only 28% of independents approve. Democrats now hold a 16-point advantage on the issue: Forty-one percent of voters trust them more to handle vaccine policy, compared with 25% who trust Republicans..
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Our party’s own data warned us that backsliding on vaccines would hurt our prospects. In 2025, the Republican polling firm Fabrizio Ward published a memo finding broad bipartisan support for routine childhood vaccines and warning that undermining them would cost votes.
The numbers are stark. Seventy-four percent of Americans say ensuring broad availability of Food and Drug Administration-approved vaccines should be a priority. Nearly 70% say they would be more likely to vote for a congressional candidate who vows to preserve vaccine access over one who seeks to rescind it. And crucially, more than 50% of voters say they’d be less likely to support a candidate who doesn’t support vaccines, even if they align with that candidate on other issues.
In other words, silence on vaccines is becoming a dealbreaker for voters who would otherwise vote Republican.
Democratic candidates have wasted no time in turning the issue to their advantage. If Republicans come up short in November, there will be plenty of blame to go around — but this wound is self-inflicted.
The good news is that a self-inflicted wound is one we can heal ourselves. Republican candidates should address the measles resurgence by loudly promoting access to FDA-approved vaccines and insisting that families receive dependable information from their physicians.
