Sen. Ron Wyden is asking for an investigation into whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr. violated the Hatch Act by contacting two Libertarian candidates in Iowa and urging them to leave congressional races, according to reporting cited by The Hill.
The allegation matters because Kennedy is a member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, and the Hatch Act restricts partisan political activity by most federal executive branch officials. The law is supposed to keep government power from being used as campaign machinery, a concept that should not require a seminar to understand.
Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, pointed to calls Kennedy reportedly made to Marco Battaglia, a Libertarian running in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, and Rick Stewart, a Libertarian running in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District. Both races were described as close, and the Libertarian candidates were reported to be positioned to draw votes that could otherwise help Republican candidates.
In Battaglia’s case, Kennedy reportedly said, “If this seat flips, it’ll make my life hell.” That line, if accurately reported, ties the request directly to Kennedy’s own political and oversight concerns rather than to some neutral policy issue.
Wyden also cited a reported call with Stewart in which Kennedy suggested Stewart could pursue another federal government role outside elected office and said he would help him do that. Wyden framed that as Kennedy asking a candidate to suspend his campaign in a way that would help the Republican candidate, help Republicans preserve their House majority, and help Kennedy avoid subpoenas from Democratic committee chairs.
“Iowa’s voters should be able to freely choose who represents them in Congress, and our democracy does not allow political appointees to take that power away from them by deleting candidates from the ballot,” Wyden wrote in his letter, according to the reported account.
What the Hatch Act issue is
The Hatch Act bars most executive branch federal officials, and some state officials, from partisan political activity. Some cases turn on context and interpretation. Wyden’s complaint is more direct: he says Kennedy acted in his official capacity as a Cabinet member and tried to reduce the number of candidates on the ballot to benefit one party.
The reported Stewart call adds another layer. A Cabinet official suggesting help finding a federal post while asking a candidate to drop out raises the obvious question of whether government employment was being floated as a political inducement. Wyden is asking investigators to treat that as a possible violation, not as campaign small talk.
Kennedy has not been found to have violated the Hatch Act based on the facts described here. The current public record, as reported, is an allegation from Wyden built around two candidate calls and the political stakes in two Iowa House races.
If the reports are accurate, the case is not about Kennedy holding private political opinions. It is about whether a federal official used his status and access to press minor-party candidates to exit races because their continued presence might hurt Republicans and create trouble for him in Congress.
This story draws on original reporting from Techdirt.