August 6, 2025
A political action committee affiliated with Democrats is seizing on anger about the massive healthcare cuts President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress enacted last month to enlist health professionals as candidates.
The organization known as 314 Action — which takes its name from 3.14, the abbreviation for the mathematical constant pi — is seeking clinicians to face off against Republican lawmakers or fill open seats in next year’s midterm congressional elections.
Historically, most physicians serving in Congress have been Republicans. To change that, 314 Action aims to elect at least 100 doctors to Congress and other offices by 2030.
The PAC claims credit for helping several Democratic health professionals win elections in recent years, including Rep. Dr. Kim Schrier (Wash.), a pediatrician, and Rep. Lauren Underwood (Ill.), a registered nurse.
“This year [we’ve seen] really just an explosion of the number of physicians willing to take that step forward,” said Shaughnessy Naughton, a chemist who founded 314 Action in 2016 to recruit progressive health and science professionals for public office.
Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which slashes Medicaid and health insurance exchange spending by $1.1 trillion and is projected to leave 10 million people uninsured over 10 years, turbocharged interest among health professionals, Naughton said.
Dr. Tina Shah (D) announced her campaign against Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.) just days before the House passed a version of the bill in May. Later that month, Minnesota state Sen. Dr. Matt Klein (D) launched a bid to succeed Rep. Angie Craig (D), who is running for Senate.
There was more to come.
In the weeks immediately following Trump signing the tax law, 314 Action trumpeted the Democratic candidacies of California Assemblymember Dr. Jasmeet Bains against Rep. David Valadao (R); Dr. Dave Oxman to succeed Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.), who is retiring; Dr. Ada Cuellar against Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas); and physician assistant Kishla Askins to succeed Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who is retiring.
Naughton and the clinician candidates said the nation’s unsteady response to the COVID-19 pandemic was a political wake-up call for a lot of doctors. Worsening health disparities and other persistent failings of the healthcare system have also driven them from the clinic to the campaign trail, Naughton said.
“The common theme I hear from them is they realize there’s only so much they can do from their exam room,” Naughton said. This is a shift from traditional views among health professionals, she said.
“The attitude has been, well, physician care is above politics, and therefore physicians shouldn’t be involved in politics,” Naughton said. “But, you know, that’s a failed business model. That’s how this bill just passed.”
Underwood and Hawaii Gov. Dr. Josh Green (D) co-chair 314 Action’s “Guardians of Public Health” initiative to recruit medical professionals and have already spoken with more than 125 potential candidates, most of whom are physicians, Naughton said.
Dr. Annie Andrews aims to challenge Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) next year after losing to Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) in 2022. Graham chairs the Budget Committee, which shepherded the tax bill through the upper chamber.
Andrews, who practices at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, sees a “crisis point” in American politics and healthcare and expressed the same frustration Naughton described.
“A lot of physicians like me are waking up, looking around and realizing that we need to set our clinical practice aside to go fix some of these problems,” Andrews said. “We are seeing an unprecedented, coordinated attack on our nation’s healthcare system and our nation’s public health infrastructure.”
314 Action has formally endorsed Andrews and Klein along with more than 100 candidates with health and science backgrounds for local, state and federal offices.
‘People here feel very, very betrayed’
Bains practices family medicine at Adventist Health Delano, part of Roseville, California-based Adventist Health. The hospital is located in a congressional district where 64% of residents are enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, according to data compiled by the health policy research institution KFF.
The two-term state legislator was already considering trading Sacramento for Washington based on endemic problems she sees in her agricultural community, Bains said.
“This is a story of a doctor that’s run out of room on her prescription pad,” Bains said. “What prescription do I write to clean the air of this area? What prescription can I write to make it more affordable for my patients to buy food?”
The huge cuts Trump and the GOP Congress enacted with Valadao’s support will only worsen these problems, Bains said.
“Valadao kept saying he wasn’t going to vote for it,” Bains said. “People took him for his word, and then he lied and went and voted for it. People here feel very, very betrayed.”
The Valadao campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Valadao has defended his votes for the tax measure, which he did pledge to oppose over the scale of the Medicaid cuts, by asserting they would have been deeper without his intervention.
The GOP incumbent has also said that the Trump administration has promised to support his district, including with money from the law’s $50 billion rural hospital relief fund. Moreover, the statute’s mandate that states implement work requirements for many adult Medicaid beneficiaries allows exemptions for regions with unemployment rates above 8%, for which Valadao’s district would qualify.
‘Fear-mongering’
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” and its healthcare provisions in particular have little popular support. But Republicans emphasize that voters favor some of its central elements, such as the tax cuts and an enormous increase in immigration enforcement.
“Democrats are fearmongering to hide the truth: They blindly support their party’s radical push to raise taxes, kill jobs, gut national security and keep the border wide open,” said a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP’s campaign arm.
The Graham campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee did not respond to requests for comment.
Historically, the party out of power in midterm elections picks up seats, such as in 2018, when Democrats won control of Congress during Trump’s first term.
Naughton argued Democrats are on the right track with doctors, noting three were elected in 2024, which was a tough year for the party. Rep. Dr. Herb Conaway Jr. (D-N.J.) comfortably defeated Dr. Rajesh Mohan (R) for a seat vacated by Sen. Andrew Kim (D), Rep. Dr. Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.) bested Republican Joanna Harbour for an open seat in a heavily Democratic district, and Rep. Dr. Kelly Morrison (D-Minn.) handily beat Republican Tad Jude to succeed Rep. Dean Phillips (D).
These newly minted Democratic physician-legislators enabled the party to create the Congressional Doctors Caucus in May as a counterweight to the 16-year-old GOP Doctors Caucus. The Democratic group has six members to the Republicans’ 14, which includes two dentists and two pharmacists.