March 12, 2026
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) — Today, 314 Action and Courier Newsroom hosted a live virtual conversation on how Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA policies will impact the 2026 midterms. 314 Action President Shaughnessy Naughton was joined by Representative Lauren Underwood (IL-14), Hank Green, Dr. Vin Gupta, and Dr. Mary Trump as they discussed the cost of Trump and RFK Jr.’s anti-science agenda.
Speakers underscored the danger posed by RFK Jr. to public health and how the MAHA agenda and its failed policies have made Americans sicker. They also previewed how health care affordability will be a decisive issue in the midterms, with Americans in battleground states currently blaming Republicans for high health care costs.
This is the first in a two-part virtual series ahead of 314 Action’s ten year anniversary in June 2026. The next scheduled virtual event will focus on the fight for science in American democracy, register here.
Excerpts from speaker remarks are below:
Shaughnessy Naughton, 314 Action President
“The MAHA voters are an important constituency to be talking to because I do think we can win a lot of those back in the midterms this year. I think people are frustrated and exhausted with the politicization of everything—with the lies coming from administration, the false hope. They give…easy solutions to really complicated problems and they’ve lost credibility with a lot of these voters that feel really betrayed.
“I think there’s a real opportunity for scientists and health professionals to step in and earn their trust and earn their vote. These are not impossible problems to solve, but we need to put the right people in place and we do that by winning Democratic majorities across the country and we do that by electing more scientists and health professionals.”
Hank Green, author and creator
“It is a hard environment to communicate in when you have communications revolutions, it tears everything apart. And then we end up in a situation where, people who are doing the thing that gets the most attention are the ones who feel the most real and the most authentic—and it’s hard to get the most attention when you can’t say the most attention grabbing thing, because you have some allegiance to truth.”
Congresswoman Lauren Underwood, Representative of Illinois’ 14th Congressional and registered nurse
“The way that we stop Donald Trump and this chaos is to win in the midterms in November…It’s up to us to extend that hand to them and talk to them about those issues that are most important to them. People that we would call a MAHA voter—they’re not partisan and they’re up for grabs in this midterm elections.
Dr. Mary Trump, psychologist and author
“It’s really important to remember that every single relationship Donald has is transactional. He has no belief system whatsoever. His primary and perhaps only belief is that, and he’s trying to convince himself of this constantly, is that he’s the greatest, the best, the most amazing, the smartest. He knows more than generals. He knows more than the doctors and people like Robert Kennedy Jr. have figured out that the easiest way to get what they want is to make Donald believe that they can do something for him.
“So, I think it’s a mistake to give Donald any credit for understanding anything or having any beliefs because that almost gives him the benefit of the doubt. I think the problem we’re facing right now is that because he is so easily manipulatable, people as unfit and as psychiatrically disordered as Kennedy, can be in a position of real power to have massive deleterious effects on Americans’ health, both physical and psychological.”
Dr. Vin Gupta, physician and medical analyst
“It’s getting a lot worse when it comes to affordability of health care services. Whether somebody can get a basic preventive screen for cancer, whether somebody can afford the next novel chemotherapeutic agent for their cancer. All these are challenges that we’re seeing more and more across the country. 24 million people have lost affordable health care insurance as the subsidies expired for an affordable health insurance option at the beginning of the year through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. So we’re seeing many millions of people now a lot more vulnerable than they were just a year ago.
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Watch the full recording and register for our next event “Fact vs. Fiction: The Fight for Science in American Democracy” on June 11 here.