CLIVE, Iowa — Former Health and Human Services senior adviser Calley Means said Iowa is positioned to play a central role in advancing the Make America Healthy Again movement, telling Breitbart News in an exclusive interview that the state's agricultural economy, concerns about cancer rates, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn's willingness to tackle hard questions on food and health policy make it the place where the fight begins.
"I think this existential conversation starts in Iowa," Means told Breitbart following the MAHA PAC's October 28 "Get Out the Vote Rally" in Clive, a Des Moines suburb, ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
The rally featured Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Lahn, Means, and other Republican candidates, elected officials, and health, consumer, and agricultural advocates, according to Breitbart's reporting.
Means's remarks came less than a week after he announced his resignation from the White House in an October 22 post on X, in which he expressed "tremendous respect for President Trump and Bobby Kennedy" and emphasized his continued commitment to the MAHA movement.
"It was an honor to advocate for MAHA moms in the administration and steer policies like Dietary Guidelines reform, psychedelic reform, removing soda from SNAP, removing food dyes, GRAS reform, and overhauling government food procurement," Means wrote in that post.
During his remarks at Wednesday's rally, Means addressed his departure from the administration and reflected on his experience working alongside Kennedy, per Breitbart.
"I left my job very recently, which means I can spill the beans. I can give the truth about Bobby Kennedy's tenure in the Trump administration from the inside," Means told attendees. "What is so clear to me from spending, from having the privilege to spend every day of the last two years with Bobby Kennedy, is that there has never in modern history been a person with more integrity that has come to the halls of power in Washi—"
Lahn, a Northwest Iowa native, delivered an impassioned speech at the same rally, according to The MAHA Report, which published his remarks. He framed the movement as a fight against corruption and special interests.
"You've heard a common theme here. You heard Calley Means talk about it. You heard Joel Salatin — by the way, as an Iowa kid who grew up in Northwest Iowa, out in the country, coming to this place right now, sharing the same stage with Calley Means, with Joel Salatin, and with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — what an honor," Lahn said.
"You've heard a common theme. And that common theme is one of corruption. One of the big versus the little. One of government choosing a side against the [special] interests. And I'll tell you what you all saw in the primary. That has not changed one bit," he continued.
Lahn told the crowd that politicians have been "given the piece of paper by a special interest group or a corporate giant that tells them exactly what to think, exactly what to say, and they do it because they've been bought off."
"You are in the presence right now of people who are not for sale, who are not able to be bought off, who are going to do the bidding of the people. This is much deeper than politics. I think you know that. This is a spiritual battle. This is the battle that we're in," Lahn said, according to The MAHA Report.
Lahn described the fight as one against "people that would put the bottom lines of a company ahead of the health of our children," while affirming his belief in the free market.
"We believe in free market, but we also understand that for a long time, a select few have gotten very rich off the backs of the health of our children. And when I am governor, I am telling you this right now, in the State of Iowa, that is over!" he said.
Means's designation of Iowa as the movement's launching point rests on three factors he cited to Breitbart: the state's agricultural economy, concerns about cancer rates, and Lahn's willingness to address difficult questions surrounding food and health policy.
The rally was organized by MAHA PAC and framed as a get-out-the-vote event six days before the midterms, with health, consumer, and agricultural advocates sharing a stage with Republican candidates and elected officials.
Means did not offer specifics in the interview about which policies he believes Iowa should pursue first, and it is not yet known whether Lahn has committed to particular MAHA-aligned proposals beyond the themes he struck in his speech.
Our Take
This is what happens when a movement stops being a press release and starts being a ground game. Calley Means didn't pick Iowa by accident. He picked it because the state grows the food, knows the farmers, and has a governor's race where the Republican candidate is willing to say out loud what most politicians mumble: that a handful of corporations have gotten rich while American kids got sicker.
That's the MAHA message in one sentence, and Lahn delivered it without a focus group's permission slip. "This is a spiritual battle," he said. You can call that rhetoric, but it's the kind of rhetoric that fills a room in Clive, Iowa, six days before an election.
Notice what Means did on his way out the door. He listed the wins — Dietary Guidelines reform, soda out of SNAP, food dyes, GRAS reform, government food procurement — and then he went to Iowa to make sure those wins become a movement instead of a memory. That's how you build something that outlasts an administration.
The question for patriots is simple: if Iowa is ground zero, what are the other 49 states waiting for? The MAHA moms didn't elect Trump and Kennedy to win a debate. They elected them to change what's on the dinner table. Iowa gets to show the country how it's done — or it gets to show everyone how a movement stalls out.
Which one will it be?
