Governors across the country — including at least one Democrat — are jumping on the latest Make America Healthy Again trend: banning the purchase of soda and candy with food stamps.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins signed another round of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program waivers this week for West Virginia, Florida, Colorado, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, allowing them to prohibit the purchase of soda, and, in some states, candy, sugary beverages and other sweets.
While states like Oklahoma were quicker than others to embrace the MAHA agenda — Gov. Kevin Stitt announced his waiver was sent to Rollins at a MAHA event in the state with Health Secretary Robert Kennedy in late June — 12 total states now have waivers, and Kennedy implied more were on the way.
“I was at the governors conference in Colorado last week, and I met with a whole string of Democratic governors,” Kennedy said at a press conference on Monday, “and they all committed to filing SNAP waivers.”
Trending
The Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services did not answer questions about which states they anticipated would be submitting waivers.
Kennedy claimed these Democratic governors didn’t want the waivers branded as “MAHA,” though, as it’s become “kind of a partisan brand.” Thus far, Colorado is the lone Democratic state to obtain a waiver.
But the list of Republican governors wanting to prove their MAHA bona fides has already grown since Monday. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced Wednesday that he’s issuing a SNAP executive order in the next few days.
“America is getting healthy, and South Carolina will do her part,” McMaster wrote on social media. “I will issue an executive order directing the Department of Social Services to place common-sense limits on purchases made using SNAP benefits.” (A spokesperson for McMaster told NOTUS on Thursday that further details on the limits could not be provided.)
Issues around SNAP have been at the center of recent major battles in Congress: Democratic lawmakers were furious when Kennedy announced his push to get sweets off SNAP, and the idea has sent Big Soda lobbyists into a frenzy. The Republican reconciliation bill makes about $230 million in cuts to SNAP over a decade, while Sen. Lisa Murkowski angered other Republicans by carving out Alaska to try to save the state from the brunt of the cuts. By October 2026, states will have to cover 75% of the administrative costs of SNAP, rather than the half-and-half cost share in effect right now.
In Missouri, Gov. Mike Kehoe has had “several” conversations with Rollins and other governors about changes to SNAP benefits, spokesperson Gabby Picard told NOTUS.
“Governor Kehoe and his team are still reviewing options to improve Missouri’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that will encourage Missouri families to use their benefits on healthier foods,” Picard said in an email.
And in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine issued an executive order and announced a working group on prohibiting sugary drinks from SNAP. A waiver request must be submitted by late October, according to the announcement, but DeWine’s office would not provide NOTUS with more details on when Ohioans can expect changes to SNAP.
Jared Polis, Colorado’s Democratic governor, said Monday that the obesity rate in Colorado — despite it being one of the country’s healthiest states — motivated him to request the waiver.
“Today’s waiver is a big step towards improving the health of Coloradans, and reducing obesity rates, diabetes, and tooth decay. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is designed to support the nutritional needs of those struggling to put food on the table, and this waiver will help to ensure that more Coloradans participating in SNAP have access to healthy foods,” Polis said in a statement. “Because many local grocers make stocking decisions in part based on SNAP eligibility, I’m confident that this waiver will also help reduce food deserts in Colorado by reducing shelf space for soda and increasing it for other nutritional food products eligible for SNAP.”
“This is not red or blue, Republican or Democrat,” Rollins said as she signed Colorado’s waiver. “We are discussing and working with every state, so really excited to continue to work with Gov. Polis.”
Some blue states are watching what happens closely.
Hawaii hasn’t submitted a SNAP waiver to the USDA, and there aren’t local restrictions on soda or other foods. But the state is keeping an eye on “the implementation of this effort in the other States that have been approved so far for this waiver,” Scott Morishige, an administrator at the state’s Department of Human Services, told NOTUS in a statement.
“DHS is currently reviewing the impacts of implementing such a waiver here locally, particularly whether implementation may adversely impact local businesses or SNAP participants residing in rural communities with limited access to food retailers,” Morishige added.
A spokesperson for Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told NOTUS the state is not seeking a waiver and intends to follow federal requirements. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a bill in April to prohibit the purchase of soda on SNAP. New York has not requested a waiver, either.
Darren O’Sullivan, a spokesperson for New York’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, told NOTUS the state is focused on reducing hunger by preserving SNAP access, “not by limiting their options and dictating what food they can buy for their families.”
“If the federal government wants to promote health and wellbeing, they should fully fund SNAP, including the SNAP-Ed nutrition education program, which teaches New Yorkers how to eat healthy on a limited budget, instead of slashing SNAP and eliminating SNAP-Ed altogether,” O’Sullivan said in a statement.
Though California Gov. Gavin Newsom did not indicate he would be requesting any sort of SNAP waiver, he signed an executive order in January that, in part, orders state entities to investigate the adverse health effects of artificial food dyes and provide recommendations to reduce purchases of soda and other ultra-processed foods.
“The food we eat shouldn’t make us sick with disease or lead to lifelong consequences,” Newsom wrote in a statement to NOTUS. “California has been a leader for years in creating healthy and delicious school meals and removing harmful ingredients and chemicals from food. We’re going to work with the industry, consumers, and experts to crack down on ultra-processed foods and create a healthier future for every Californian.”
Author
