President Donald Trump will nominate Dr. Heidi Overton to be his new Food and Drug Administration commissioner, he said Wednesday on social media.
“Dr. Heidi has been a ROCKSTAR in my Administration,” Trump wrote.
Overton, a physician, is a White House domestic policy official who regularly briefs the president on various health issues. She was at his side earlier this month when he announced an executive order aimed at reducing the number of universally recommended childhood vaccinations.
At the time, she urged “blue states” to adopt the administration’s “gold standard” recommendations, which many doctors said were not supported by current science.
Trump referred to the event in his post announcing the pick.
“Heidi is “ALWAYS RIGHT,” Secretary Kennedy recently said in the Oval Office!” he posted. “We need her leadership at the FDA now to ensure that the U.S. remains the WORLD LEADER for Scientific Discovery and CURES.”
According to a senior administration official with knowledge of the process, Overton was Trump’s third choice for the position, and the administration was still interviewing candidates for the role Tuesday. Former Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, declined the job, the official said, as did acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas, citing his young children and other personal reservations.
If Overton is confirmed by the Senate, she would lead the agency at a delicate time, with the recent multistate cyclospora outbreak raising concerns about the safety of the nation’s food supply.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which will oversee Overton’s nomination, said he has “strong concerns.”
“Her lack of managerial experience does not prepare her well for leading a large organization that is already dealing with staffing and morale issues. Additionally, Dr. Overton’s active role in last week’s nonsensical vaccine executive order calls into question her commitment to standing up for sound science and protecting children’s health. That alone is almost disqualifying,” Cassidy wrote on X.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who is also on the Senate HELP Committee, called Overton a “far-right, anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading the FDA.”
“The American people deserve someone who will put science and facts FIRST, not another Trump sycophant who will make it their mission to attack medication abortion. I will vote NO,” Murray said on X.
Republicans have a one-member majority in the committee, which must advance the nomination to the full Senate for a vote.
Bloomberg was the first to report that Overton would be Trump’s FDA pick. The timing of the official announcement is unclear but is likely to be sometime this week.
Overton would replace Dr. Marty Makary, who resigned from the position in May after clashes with the White House over issues like vaping policy and access to abortion pills.
She previously served as vice chair and chief policy officer of the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank.
While there, Overton celebrated the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and with it a national right to abortion. The ruling “will allow Americans to reevaluate the value of the potential of every baby in the womb and choose life through a democratic process,” she said in a statement at the time.
In a 2024 op-ed in Newsweek, Overton criticized Kamala Harris — then vice president and the Democratic nominee for president — because she “refused to condemn late-term abortion,” adding that Democrats “won’t even define what a woman is.”
The FDA is conducting a safety review of the abortion pill mifepristone but has not yet issued a report. Republicans have been pushing to reverse a Biden-era rule that allows mifepristone to be mailed and dispensed via telehealth, not just in person.
The agency is also in the mix as the Trump administration seeks to make changes to the nation’s vaccine policies.
As a White House adviser, Overton participated in Trump’s signing last week of an executive order aimed at reducing the number of standard childhood vaccinations from 18 to 11.
In remarks at the Oval Office event, Overton criticized “blue states” that work with outside entities like the American Academy of Pediatrics and recommend what she considered outdated shot recommendations.
“So you are saying, especially to states that are willing, take a look at this scientific assessment; these are the gold standard childhood vaccine recommendations, and you should put this into your state law so that when parents go to enroll their kids in school, they do not have to meet some of the requirements for the vaccines that are no longer recommended for all children,” she said.
According to Overton’s profile on the America First Policy Institute website, she is board-certified in public health and general preventive medicine, was a general surgery resident at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed medical school at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
