Michigan’s Rx Kids expands to Cleveland year after landing $250M from Wolverine State taxpayers

Michigan’s Rx Kids cash-for-votes program for expectant mothers is expanding to Ohio, just one year after landing $250 million from Michigan taxpayers.

The expansion is expected to offer $1,500 initial payments and $500 per month to 400 mothers across three Cleveland ZIP codes in each of the next two years, supposedly funded by $2 million from the city, the William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Foundation, and private donors.

The program aims to raise $42 million for 4,000 babies born in the city, according to the Detroit Free Press.

“We’re proud that Cleveland will become the first community in Ohio—and the first outside Michigan—to launch Rx Kids,” Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb said in a statement. “This partnership reflects our commitment to giving every child the healthiest possible start while helping position Ohio as a national leader in supporting moms, babies, and families.”

The announcement comes just a week after Michigan lawmakers approved a fiscal year 2027 budget that rerouted $20 million in federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funding for Rx Kids, citing concerns about the program’s radical-left advisors and payments to illegal immigrants.

Instead of spending the TANF funds on Rx Kids, lawmakers reallocated $4.5 million to children’s healthcare policy and supports, $2 million to Child Supplemental Payments, $4.5 million to family, maternal, and child health administration, $4.5 million to prenatal care outreach and services delivery supports, and $4.5 million to “special projects,” according to the House Fiscal Agency.

“My view is that (Rx Kids) will not be eligible for those pots, and that’s why I picked [them]… I specifically put them into the pots that should be going to these other programs,” Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall, a Republican, said at a press conference on Tuesday, noting the program received $250 million in the prior budget cycle.

Hall noted the unconditional nature of the program suggests illegal immigrants and folks without financial need can collect taxpayer dollars, with no checks on whether the money is used for legitimate expenses.

Rx Kids founder and Flint pediatrician Mona Hanna confirmed in February Rx Kids supports both legal residents and illegal immigrants, though she claimed only private dollars flow to families in the country illegally.

That confirmation followed reports MSU and GiveDirectly, the New York nonprofit that administers the program, each charged 10% administrative fees to handle about $16.5 million for Rx Kids in 2023 and $20 million in 2024, before lawmakers capped administrative fees at 15% total when they drastically increased spending by $250 million in 2025 to expand the program, according to The Detroit News.

While Rx Kids was initially funded with federal TANF dollars, lawmakers expanded the program in 2025 with state General Fund dollars. The taxpayer funding is supposedly matched with charitable donations to the 501(c)(3), which are tax-deductible.

It’s unclear how Rx Kids segregates private funds from taxpayer funds, or whether the $250 million approved by lawmakers last year will help subsidize operations in Ohio.

Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Michigan Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, have called for expanding Rx Kids statewide and nationwide, respectively. Benson is overseeing her own election for governor, while McMorrow called for expansion during her U.S. Senate campaign, though she has since dropped out of the race.

The drastic $250 million increase for Rx Kids in 2025 came at the request of Michigan Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, who has endorsed Benson’s campaign for governor.

Benson and other proponents of the program point to data suggesting healthier births in Flint since the program launched in 2024 as motivation to expand it statewide, while ignoring other research that provides critical context for why Democrats strongly support unconditional direct cash payments.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris won Genesee County, home to Flint, with more than 67% of the vote in 2024, and the program has since spread to some of the most Democratic areas of the state, including Kalamazoo, Pontiac, Hazel Park, Dearborn, Hamtramck, Highland Park, Inkster, River Rouge, Ypsilanti, Saginaw, Benton Harbor, Detroit, Grand Rapids, and dozens of others.

In Cleveland, voters overwhelmingly cast ballots for Harris in 2024, though President Donald Trump won the state with more than 55% of the vote.

“We’re thrilled to begin our national expansion in neighboring Ohio. Given the Michigan-Ohio rivalry, this may be one thing we can all agree on: every baby deserves a healthy start,” Hanna said in a statement. “We’re honored to partner with Cleveland to help make that happen.”

The Ohio expansion follows about a month after the Michigan House Oversight Committee grilled Hanna on whether sufficient safeguards exist to ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent appropriately, and whether the program’s long-term goals extend beyond helping mothers and infants.

“When you look at that advisory board that they speak of, and you look at the individuals that are on that advisory board, what their political affiliations are, and I don’t mean affiliations like Republican and Democrat, I mean affiliations with long-term policy agenda items that they’re trying to accomplish, they do not line up with the beliefs that I have, and I would argue that they do not line up with the beliefs of the Republican House,” the committee’s chair, Michigan Rep. Jay DeBoyer, a Republican, said.

“When you see these affiliations, when you see their long-term motivations, when you see their worldview, when you see comments like ‘take back patriotism,’ you start to go, ‘wait a minute, why are we talking about politics when we’re trying to save babies?’” DeBoyer added.

Shortly after the hearing, Rx Kids removed its Advisory Circle from the program’s website. In the weeks since, Hanna has teamed with the free-market Mackinac Center to bolster public support for the program and work to dispel concerns about fraud, without directly addressing issues regarding support for illegal immigrants or the program’s radical left Advisory Circle.

Benson’s husband, Ryan Friedrichs, is among 29 members serving on the Rx Kids Advisory Circle, which is helping to lead the nonprofit’s “leadership on fund development, program design, state and national policy, communications, and dissemination,” according to a page deleted from the program’s website.

Friedrichs co-authored a study while attending Harvard University on “mobilizing the party faithful” that focused on “results from a statewide turnout experiment in Michigan” during the 2002 Michigan gubernatorial election. Friedrichs now works as VP of billionaire Stephen Ross’ Related Companies, and has served as head cheerleader for a massive data center subsidiary, Related Digital, forced into Saline Township against widespread local opposition.

Others in the circle of trust have worked for or with liberal activist groups promoting universal basic income, Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts, benefits for illegal immigrants, labor unions, pro-Palestinian protests, and other left-wing causes.