Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., arrives at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., for a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the war effort against Russia Sept. 26. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote against Kennedy's nomination. McConnell, the former longtime GOP Senate leader, had polio as a child and is a major proponent of vaccines.
Kennedy, the well-known vaccine skeptic and environmental crusader who ran for the White House in 2024 before ending his bid and endorsing Trump, needed a simple majority to be confirmed by the Senate.
SENATE DEMOCRATS RAIL AGAINST RFK JR. IN LATE-NIGHT SESSION AHEAD OF VOTE
(L-R) President Donald Trump, actress Cheryl Hines and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of Health and Human Services, during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (Jason C. Andrew/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump regularly criticized Kennedy during his independent presidential bid, accusing him of being a "radical left liberal" and a "Democrat plant."
Kennedy fired back, claiming in a social media post that Trump's jabs against him were "a barely coherent barrage of wild and inaccurate claims."
However, Kennedy made major headlines again in August when he dropped his presidential bid and endorsed Trump.
Kennedy had long identified as a Democrat and repeatedly invoked his late father, former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and his late uncle, former President John F. Kennedy, who were both assassinated in the 1960s. Kennedy in recent years built relationships with far-right leaders due in part to his high-profile vaccine skepticism.
Fox News Digital's Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rfk-jr-sworn-health-human-services-secretary