New Delhi, June 26 -- WASHINGTON - Rick Stewart, a 74-year-old Libertarian running for Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, picked up the phone on June 11 and started a recording.

On the other end was Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, who told Stewart during a roughly 12-minute call that a Democratic takeover of the House would undermine what the Trump administration was trying to build, that Stewart could "make an agreement" that would accomplish more than a "symbolic run" for office, and that Kennedy could not go into specifics about what was on offer "because there's legal prohibitions about that." The Washington Post obtained the recording and published its contents Wednesday.

Stewart dec...