A POLITICO analysis found more than 130 bills aimed at regulating ultraprocessed foods and improving nutrition, over 60 bills restricting the application of pesticides and other chemicals, and more than 130 bills expanding vaccine exemptions or prohibiting mandates this year. Lawmakers also introduced dozens of bills to promote the use of psychedelics, authorize sales of raw milk and ivermectin, and ban the fluoridation of drinking water.

The measures emerging from state legislatures, long seen as testing grounds for federal policy, show how Kennedy’s movement to combat chronic disease has struck a chord across the country — even as it conflicts with traditional Republican views about regulating industry. The number of bills on the subjects has increased at least 45 percent from the prior year and in 2023 for the four states that convene biennially. The outpouring of interest in Kennedy’s agenda also shows how he has outmaneuvered a public health establishment that has condemned aspects of his agenda, such as expanding vaccine exemptions and ending water fluoridation, as unscientific and dangerous.