‘We’re on the inside now’: Meet the man building a political empire behind RFK Jr.

By Tal Kopan Globe Staff,Updated March 25, 2026, 7:29 a.m. 

Publisher Tony Lyons (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in 2015. CINDY ORD 

Tony Lyons is building a political behemoth. But to what end? 

WASHINGTON — In the past three years, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has had a dramatic ascent, rocketing from the contrarian fringe to the center of the American health system and leader of a burgeoning political movement. At every step, he’s been bolstered behind the scenes by a lesser-known name: Tony Lyons. 

A longtime publisher and ally of Kennedy’s, Lyons has built a sprawling political operation to promote Kennedy and his “Make America Healthy Again” brand, a multimillion-dollar endeavor that spans multiple nonprofits, businesses, and a political action committee — one could call it “MAHA Inc.” Under the MAHA banner, Lyons hosts administration officials as he plays emcee on weekly activist organizing calls, holds glitzy cocktail parties at an exclusive D.C. club, and convenes events around the country. 

Since his campaign, the MAHA Inc. network has amplified Kennedy’s message and ideas, celebrating Kennedy’s overhaul of the nation’s vaccine system and efforts to revamp its food supply. Increasingly, the network is also cheerleading for President Trump, even as other prominent MAHA activists are critical of some of his administration’s recent moves. 

Lyons has said the aim of the network is to, as the name suggests, promote American health. But it is also amassing a political force behind Kennedy. While Lyons has said the current focus is on the midterms, the goal is seemingly to empower Kennedy and his movement to enact a sweeping agenda for years to come. 

“We’re going to harness every bit of that power to work with every Cabinet member, every branch of government, every part of this administration … because we know that the midterms are so important to the future of the MAHA movement,” Lyons told grassroots activists on a recent organizing call he hosted. “We’re just going to fight tooth and nail for the next six months to make sure that we win the midterms, so that Bobby Kennedy and his team can complete the mission that they started.” 

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Lyons and his groups did not respond to questions about the network. 

A nonpolitical upbringing 

Lyons does not come from a political background. The 63-year-old New Yorker with salt-and-pepper hair and a trim beard is a longtime book publisher who grew up in a liberal family. His father, Nick Lyons, was an avid fisherman and writer who taught his son the industry at his own outdoors-focused publishing shop, Lyons Press. His mother, Mari Lyons, was a modernist painter. He has a limited and eclectic history of political donations, including Libertarian-leaning Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (now a MAHA advocate) and former Massachusetts Representative Joe Kennedy III, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

President of MAHA Action Tony Lyons joined panelists at the Heritage Foundation on Feb. 9 in Washington.HEATHER DIEHL/GETTY 

Skyhorse, the company Lyons founded 20 years ago, has a broad and wide-ranging catalog, from cookbooks, to children’s books, to novels. But it is particularly known for releasing books considered unsavory, controversial, or scandalous. Lyons picked up Woody Allen’s memoir and a biography of Philip Roth by Blake Bailey when they were dropped elsewhere over sexual assault accusations (both authors denied the allegations). Skyhorse has published books by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as well as polarizing former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz. It has been the preferred publisher of Kennedy and other vaccine and public health critics since the pandemic. 

Lyons is an outspoken free speech advocate and has said he believes books should challenge people’s preconceived notions. He has also been dismissive of concerns about authors’ pasts, saying on a recent podcast: “I’m not a judge. I’m not a jury. I’m just a publisher.” 

Lyons himself has known Kennedy for roughly 15 years, he told the Globe in 2023, having connected over Kennedy’s antivaccine activism and environmental work to clean up the Hudson River, near Lyons’s home. 

Like many MAHA activists, Lyons has a personal connection to the cause. His daughter has severe autism, a fact he seldom discusses. However, his ex-wife has written three books, all published by Skyhorse, about how their family navigated the condition — which, she writes, developed after their daughter received a childhood vaccination. 

Skyhorse published Kennedy’s 2014 book, “Thimerosal: Let the science speak,” one of his earliest books critical of vaccines. But it was during the COVID pandemic that Kennedy and Lyons’s partnership coalesced around the health contrarianism that defines MAHA today. In 2021, Skyhorse published the first of Kennedy’s multiple COVID-skeptic books criticizing the US pandemic response, “The Real Anthony Fauci.” 

The book sold well but faced heavy criticism and opposition, and Lyons grew frustrated with what he saw as censorship of views countering public health officials. Lyons said on the recent podcast that he had a team calling bookstores nationwide asking them to carry the Kennedy book, pressing the stores to answer why when they refused. 

The relationship has seemingly been lucrative. Kennedy received over $450,000 from Skyhorse in 2024 for consulting, author introductions, and writing book forwards, and is due to receive more than $2 million in forthcoming book advances, according to his government financial disclosures. Kennedy pledged to not work on or promote any books while in office. 

The evolution of MAHA Inc. 

When Kennedy launched a presidential bid in 2023, first as a Democrat, then as an independent, Lyons was there to support him. Lyons co-created a political action committee to back the campaign with Mark Gorton, a hedge fund founder and creator of peer-sharing platform Limewire, who has long supported Kennedy’s antivaccine efforts. The group raised tens of millions of dollars, much of it from reclusive Republican mega-donor Timothy Mellon and prominent vaccine skeptics. 

After Kennedy bowed out and endorsed Trump, the group rebranded under the label of MAHA. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke during an event in Nashville, Tenn. GEORGE WALKER IV/ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Initially, that was the extent of Lyons’s involvement. The outside efforts to support Kennedy through the nonprofit MAHA Action were helmed by Del Bigtree, a former Kennedy campaign official and longtime antivaccine activist. 

But in the spring of 2025, Bigtree suddenly stepped aside, saying he felt it precluded him from criticizing the administration — a comment that now seems to have foreshadowed Lyons’s position within MAHA. 

Lyons took over MAHA Action from Bigtree, and the network has steadily grown. 

A sprawling enterprise 

Under Lyons’s umbrella are multiple groups, many with the ability to raise large sums of money from anonymous donors and spend them on political causes. There are two advocacy nonprofits — MAHA Action, which organizes grassroots supporters, and MAHA Institute, which functions more like a think tank. 

MAHA Action hosts events around the country, cocktail parties at the exclusive Ned’s Club in D.C., and weekly organizing calls for ideologically aligned activists. It also publishes a pro-Kennedy newsletter and has state legislation trackers, where it makes official endorsements or opposes potential bills. MAHA Institute, which lists Gorton as its president, holds D.C.-based policy roundtables and conferences. Both endorse political candidates. 

Kennedy transferred the MAHA trademark to MAHA Action in December. LAUREN WEBER/LAUREN WEBER/TWP 

MAHA Center, a newer addition to the network, is classified as an educational nonprofit. Unlike the other groups, donations to it are tax deductible, but it is limited from engaging in overt political activity. It was the MAHA Center that placed a Super Bowl ad featuring Mike Tyson that promoted the administration’s “eat real food” message. Lyons said it was funded by anonymous donors. 

There is also MAHA PAC, the rebranded version of the political committee Lyons and Gorton founded to support Kennedy’s campaign. 

Government filings for the groups show they each have significant resources. MAHA Action pulled in and spent nearly $8 million when it was run by Bigtree. MAHA Institute pulled in $2 million by the end of 2024. Both groups’ donors are secret. MAHA PAC had more than $1.2 million in its coffers at the end of January, but donated more than $900,000 of that to MAHA Action in February. It has raised little money since last summer, but the group says it hopes to raise $100 million for the midterms. 

Also affiliated with Lyons and the groups is a business called MAHA Holdings, run by one of Kennedy’s sons and a former tech startup founder, which helps organize and fund MAHA Action’s events. Those have included a large summit at the Washington Waldorf Astoria that had a heavy biotech presence and smaller events like a food-centric rally in Austin, Texas. The holding company has little paper trail, but is registered under a law firm address in Phoenix, the same one used for the shell company that controls the MAHA trademark itself. 

Steve Bannon, a firebrand MAGA radio host and Trump ally, has known Lyons for 10 years and sees him and the MAHA coalition as a key piece of MAGA’s political success. He notes Lyons’s conversion from a left-leaning activist to a Trump supporter as evidence of a broader political shift and credits Lyons with molding that into a powerful political force. 

“He’s got an organizer’s mind,” Bannon said in an interview. “The real movement here is what’s going to survive, and Tony’s one of the biggest things [about it]. ... Politics has changed, it comes down to street muscle, and he can deliver that.” 

Ties to the administration 

A steady stream of administration officials headlines their events, mingles at the parties, and gives updates on the weekly calls. After MAHA Center’s Super Bowl ad ran last month, Tyson and the ad’s creators were hosted at an official Department of Health and Human Services event in the HHS building. It was 

nearly impossible to distinguish where the government agency ended and the outside group began — the event even featured black and white posters of Kennedy and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins sporting Tyson’s signature face tattoo in the style of the ad. 

Lyons says the enterprise has built up credibility behind the scenes in Washington, allowing it to influence policy. 

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former boxing heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins posed during an event at the Health and Human Services Headquarters in February. MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO/GETTY 

“We have five or six different MAHA entities, and they’re all joined together now,” Lyons said last month at an event hosted by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. “We recognize now that we’re not advocates looking from the outside in, we’re on the inside now, and we can have a real impact that we didn’t have the ability to have over the last 20 years.” 

The groups have also created a MAHA-friendly media ecosystem, paying influencers to produce content for them and running multiple Substacks that use daily editions to tout the administration’s actions. The weekly calls and newsletters have also offered a platform for pushing back on any media stories 

the groups object to, including sometimes lengthy rebuttals to investigations scrutinizing the influencers and podcasters who have become major figures and minor celebrities in the movement. 

So far, there are early signs that the political might they tout is real, but it has yet to be proven at the ballot box. The groups have endorsed candidates in a variety of races across the country, some of whom have won, but it’s unclear whether the endorsement made a difference. Lyons wrote a memo in February to Republicans urging them to take the MAHA coalition seriously as a political force, citing polling the group commissioned from Trump’s pollster. 

MAHA PAC has targeted one of Kennedy‘s chief critics and top pro-vaccine voices in Congress, Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a doctor, pledging $1 million to support a primary challenge from Representative Julia Letlow after Trump endorsed her. But an Instagram post announcing the support was met with dismay from MAHA activists, who noted Letlow’s historic support of the COVID vaccine. Letlow was elected to replace her husband, who died of COVID in 2020 before he could be sworn in for the seat in Congress he had just won. 

The group has so far spent about $180,000 ahead of the May primary. It has made two mailers, one supporting Letlow and one opposing Cassidy, as well as a pro-Letlow text push and a digital campaign against Cassidy. It has also spent over $55,000 on a digital campaign against Cassidy. 

Signs of fracture 

Perhaps the biggest test so far for MAHA — and for Lyons — has been on pesticides, one of the movement’s major concerns as a potential environmental and food-based health hazard (industry representatives and the Environmental Protection Agency have disputed this). 

A recent executive order from Trump supported the production of glyphosate, a weed killer and desiccant that is a longtime target of Kennedy and the MAHA movement. The administration has also supported a bid by the maker of Roundup at the Supreme Court to insulate the company from lawsuits alleging the product causes cancer. 

In the days after the executive order, as many anti-pesticide activists expressed outrage, Lyons and his groups were silent. When Kennedy released a defense of the order, the Substack run by MAHA Action published Kennedy’s response and amplified its message. On his organizing calls, Lyons has downplayed any schism, portraying news coverage of tension as an attempt to sidetrack the movement. 

“We should not allow ourselves to be manipulated by the very forces and the companies that have poisoned us,” Lyons said on a recent weekly call. “The only way they can defeat us is if they can find a way to divide us.” 

Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, at a news conference with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Salt Lake City, Utah, April 7, 2025. NIKI CHAN WYLIE/NYT 

Lyons was not always so defensive of the administration on the issue. MAHA Action weekly calls featured criticisms of the EPA at times last year. High-profile members of MAHA and many of the loudest voices on pesticides created a petition late last year calling for EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to be fired after the agency approved the use of two pesticides that contain forever chemicals. But Zeldin mounted a charm offensive: stopping by a MAHA Action party, inviting activists for a meeting, then joining an organizing call to tout his commitment to MAHA. On the same call as Zeldin, anti-pesticide activist Kelly Ryerson, who co-created the petition for his ouster, noted the progress but said there was more for the EPA to do. Despite pesticides continuing to be a regular topic of discussion, Ryerson has not been featured on a call since. She declined to comment. 

Some people familiar with the movement, who spoke on condition of anonymity to not jeopardize their relationships, said Lyons is giving Kennedy cover so he can stay in Trump’s good graces, given the known connections between the groups and Kennedy. 

Alex Clark, a popular MAHA podcast host and social media personality affiliated with the pro-Republican Turning Point USA, co-created the anti-Zeldin petition. She said while many of her followers and the “MAHA moms” have appreciated much of this administration’s other work, the recent glyphosate move has jeopardized their continued support. 

“I have never received so many complaints or just anger as I did from that executive order,” Clark said. She, Ryerson and other activists are planning a rally in D.C. in April when the Supreme Court takes up the Roundup case. 

“Based on what Tony has said … he’s trying to hold this all together,” Clark said when asked about Lyons’s approach. “I sure hope he’s successful. You’d have to ask him how concerned he is or how seriously he’s taking the complaints from the crowd on this particular issue.” 

The Skyhorse-MAHA connection 

While Lyons has been a driving force for MAHA Inc., MAHA has also appeared to be good to Lyons. 

Lyons has added a “MAHA Books” imprint to Skyhorse, which has published titles from a number of MAHA luminaries. 

Those books have been regularly featured by the MAHA Inc. under Lyons, who typically addresses the weekly calls in front of a backdrop featuring Skyhorse titles. Since November, MAHA Action has promoted at least 15 new releases, MAHA-related or otherwise, from Skyhorse on its calls and/or newsletter. 

The publishing house has also expanded its ties to more traditional Republicans and to the administration. Skyhorse published “Melania,” the memoir of first lady Melania Trump. Sean Spicer, Trump’s first press secretary, has touted his forthcoming Trump-focused book.

Lyons has downplayed any potential self-enrichment from the books. 

“I’m happy to donate money for all the copies purchased,” Lyons said during a weekly call that promoted one of the books. He did not answer whether such a donation happened. 

Faced with other criticism about the ways MAHA figures make money, such as selling unproven dietary supplements, Lyons defended generating income if it was to promote the movement’s vision of health. 

“We really want to make it cheaper and easier to be healthy,” Lyons said during one call. “And we want to help people make money doing things that help the American people.” 

Tal Kopan can be reached at tal.kopan@globe.com. Follow her @talkopan.