Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, will meet with Senate Democrats who serve on key health committees, Politico reported.
Kennedy will meet with Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Michael Bennett, D-Colo., Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Mark Warner, D-Va., a Kennedy spokesman told Politico.
Each of those senators serves on the Finance Committee that would vote to approve Kennedy, who was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump.
Kennedy is also meeting with Democrat Sens. Ed Markey, Mass., and John Fetterman, Pa., who serve on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
If Democrats unite in opposition to Kennedy, he can only lose three Republican votes. While no Republicans have publicly opposed his nomination, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., has expressed concern about Kennedy's vaccine skepticism.
Kennedy has already met with dozens of Republican senators, Politico reported.
Hawaii Democrat Gov. Josh Green, a doctor, flew to Washington to lobby Democrats to oppose Kennedy's nomination.
"There has been some concern that Fetterman and Sanders have a favorable opinion of some of RFK's, for instance, anti-Big Pharma positions," Green told Politico. "I suspect there are at least three to five [Republicans] who want this to not go to a vote — and that number is probably much larger."
Green said more than 80 people died in Samoa after anti-vaccine activists spread unfounded fears about vaccine safety and vaccination rates dropped, Politico reported.
"We had to watch children die," Green told Politico, blaming Kennedy for causing mistrust of the measles vaccine.