In New Jersey and Virginia our Democrats flipped seats that haven't been blue since the 1970s! And we're only getting started: Donate to power our work to elect the biggest wave of STEM Democrats in America's history!
November 7, 2025
Katherine Wu
In his run for governor of Maine, Nirav Shah holds standard Democratic positions. He aims, his campaign says, “to fix housing, fund health care, feed kids, and fuel growth, while fighting back against the overreaches of the Trump administration.” But Shah’s background is less conventional: In addition to being a lawyer, he’s an epidemiologist who directed Maine’s CDC during the coronavirus pandemic and was the principal deputy director of the federal CDC until earlier this year. Shah decided to resign from the CDC in part because of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as the secretary of health and human services. If he wins in 2026—a big if this early in the race—Shah suspects that he might be one of the first, if not the first, top CDC officials to secure such a prominent elected office.
Many science and health professionals have shied away from politics in the past. But as the Trump administration has rescinded its support for scientific research, restricted vaccine access, dismissed expert advisers, attacked doctors and scientists, and worked to curtail health-insurance coverage, researchers and health-care workers have had a surge of interest in running for office. Shaughnessy Naughton, the president of 314 Action, a political-action committee focused on electing Democrats with science backgrounds, told me that since January her team has seen almost 700 applications for candidate guidance, training, or funding, about seven times what the group would expect during an election off year.
Some of that interest has already translated into active campaigns. Candidates running in 2026 elections include a mathematician and a microbiologist, along with multiple pediatricians and former health officials. They are entering crowded races, in which even the primaries are months away. But many of these candidates argue that amid the administration’s attacks, voters will want to support scientifically minded politicians who can help fill the gaps in expertise that the nation’s leaders have left. Several told me that they specifically began their campaigns after Kennedy was confirmed and began to remake U.S. vaccine policy.
The number of candidates with science or health backgrounds is one more indication of how these fields are being forced to reckon with their role in the current political landscape. Plenty of science professionals still argue that their work shouldn’t be political. “Let’s get the politics out of public health,” Daniel Jernigan, who directed the CDC’s center for emerging and zoonotic diseases before resigning in protest of HHS’s approach to health policy, said at a rally in August. At the same time, the Trump administration’s attacks have created a political opening that many health and science experts are taking, even if it means politicizing science further.
Science and health representation in elected office is sparse: Three percent of state legislators are scientists, engineers, or health-care professionals, according to Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics. The majority of those politicians are Republicans, Eagleton data show; so are most of the STEM professionals currently in Congress. But as groups, both scientists and, at least in recent years, doctors have leaned liberal, and many of those now motivated to speak out against the Trump administration are Democrats, Kristoffer Shields, the director of Eagleton’s Center on the American Governor, told me. Hawaii’s Josh Green, the only Democratic physician currently serving in a state governorship, gained prominence during the coronavirus pandemic, when he advanced proactive mitigation measures as lieutenant governor. (This year, Green partnered with 314 Action to launch a $25 million campaign to elect 100 new Democratic physicians to office by 2030; he is up for reelection next year.)
Some science-minded candidates are entering electoral politics for the first time. For New Jersey’s Tina Shah (no relation to Nirav), an ICU physician now running for the U.S. House of Representatives, the push was the Trump administration’s approach to health care: She told me that she now regularly encounters patients who can’t afford medication or who are being denied coverage for important procedures. Others have made bids for public office before, including Abdul El-Sayed, a former health director with an M.D., who ran, unsuccessfully, for the Democratic nomination to Michigan’s governorship in 2018. He feels more confident in his current bid for U.S. Senate because the second Trump administration has made the harms of inaccessible care even more visible. He is gaining some traction: In the most recent quarter, he raised close to $1.8 million, the second-highest amount in his Democratic primary. Tina Shah, meanwhile, has raised more money from donors in a single quarter than any other Democrat in her district.
After the pediatrician Annie Andrews lost a congressional race in 2022, “I had no intention of running again,” she told me—then she changed her mind after watching Kennedy rise to the top of HHS. Andrews is running to unseat Lindsey Graham in the U.S. Senate, but she said she has found success in casting Kennedy—arguably the country’s most polarizing health secretary to date—as an opponent, too: “The more I speak out against the absurdity of RFK Jr. and his recent actions, the more traction I am getting.” For Richard Pan, a pediatrician and former California state senator, Kennedy’s threat is less abstract: When Pan was working on legislation that would make school vaccine exemptions harder to get, Kennedy, one of America’s most prominent anti-vaccine activists, traveled twice to Sacramento to oppose those measures, he told me. Pan’s now running for Congress in part to counteract Kennedy’s anti-vaccine policies at the federal level.
Many of the candidates I spoke with have considered just how much they want to lean into their credentials. For voters worried about health-insurance coverage or the future of research in the United States, scientists, health-care workers, and public-health experts may have particular appeal right now, Shields told me. Still, several of the candidates I spoke with told me they weren’t running “on an explicit science platform,” as Nirav Shah put it. The candidates I interviewed were all critical of Kennedy, but several were reluctant to fixate on him, arguing (as any politician might) that voters care more about changes that directly benefit their community.
In Nirav Shah’s view, behaving as though health and science are severed from politics is “a nonstarter.” As the Trump administration has worked to dismantle its own health agencies, members of Congress have fought to keep some of those agencies’ budgets intact. And as the administration has dismissed expert scientific advisers, state and municipal leaders have stepped in: Fifteen governors, for instance, recently announced the formation of a public-health alliance to dictate policy that diverges from the federal government’s. Although the coalition bills itself as nonpartisan, all of the participating governors are Democrats.
Under Donald Trump’s leadership, polarization around several scientific issues has deepened. The administration argues that research has been corrupted by ideology and claims that it’s restoring “gold-standard science.” Polls suggest that Republicans have been more supportive than Democrats of new restrictions on vaccine recommendations and research-funding cuts. If some Democrats are making an issue of the Trump administration’s record on health and science, so are Republicans. At least one Republican doctor running for the U.S. House has played up his opposition to mRNA vaccines; some members of Congress with health backgrounds who are running for reelection have embraced Trump-administration criticisms of COVID-era policies and gender-affirming care for children.
Several health and science professionals remain skeptical that getting into politics in any way will help their cause. Jernigan, the former CDC official, told me his call to “get the politics out of public health” at the rally meant that, for health policy, politics shouldn’t supersede evidence, not that politics can be fully extracted from public health, he told me. At the same time, he noted that enmeshing science and politics too deeply risks casting evidence and the practice of research as the business of only one political party. “Perhaps we are in a situation where there needs to be a more vocal, assertive public-health voice,” Jernigan told me. “But does it have to translate into political office? I don’t think so.”And yet, the perception of public-health overreach has been a radicalizing force among Trump supporters; whether through electoral politics or not, any attempt to fight the administration’s actions may bolster its narrative that scientists have been corrupted by liberal ideology. When I asked candidates whether their campaigns might deepen partisan divides in attitudes toward science, many of them skirted the question—and few offered answers when asked how they’d cope with that reality. Instead, candidates told me that they felt fairly boxed in. “Politics came for us,” Andrews said. “You can’t fight bad politics by staying apolitical.”
November 7, 2025
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) — A new poll finds Dr. Amy Acton leading Vivek Ramaswamy, while holding a double digit lead in net favorability (+14 Dr. Acton to +1 Ramaswamy) in Ohio’s gubernatorial race. With nearly a year until Election Day, Dr. Acton is the strongest candidate.
This is consistent with 314 Action Fund’s polling in August, showing that as a medical doctor, Dr. Acton has wide appeal to voters and room to grow.
“All the data shows what we already know to be true: Dr. Amy Acton is a uniquely strong candidate who will build a winning coalition to win Ohio,” said Erik Polyak, Executive Director of 314 Action. “Vivek Ramaswamy can try to buy his way into the race, but voters know that Dr. Acton is the only one fighting to keep them safe and healthy. There’s a long way to go, but only one candidate is gaining traction in this race—and that’s Dr. Acton.”
Other key findings:
Dr. Amy Acton holds a +14 net favorability rating, compared to Vivek Ramawamy who has just a +1 net favoritability.
This lead extends among independent voters, where Dr. Acton holds a +21, while Ramaswamy sits at -14.
Polling also found that voters are more likely to support Dr. Acton after being reminded of her experience protecting Ohio’s public health. In contrast, the more voters hear about Ramaswamy’s background, the less favorably he is viewed.
Read the latest polling memo from Hart Research here.
Read 314 Action Fund’s August polling here.
314 Action is the only national organization working to elect scientists across all levels of government—from the Senate down to local school boards. The organization is powered by a grassroots community of over six million people supporting scientists, doctors, and STEM professionals who will use science and facts to address our most pressing issues like climate change and health care.
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November 6, 2025
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) — Today, Robert F. Kennedy joined Donald Trump to announce a new deal to sell weight loss drugs to Americans at government-controlled prices. During the press conference, RFK Jr. shared plans to release new dietary guidelines for Americans. In response, 314 Action Executive Director Erik Polyak released the following statement:
“After more than a month of staying silent as Trump starves families on SNAP, RFK Jr. has finally come out of hiding. While millions of Americans go hungry, he says he’s going to ‘change the food culture in this country’. He cannot seriously be considered the champion of healthy food and no one should be taking dietary advice from him.
“When Michelle Obama tried to do the same thing, Republicans dismissed her. Everything about RFK Jr.’s food agenda is what Republicans railed against for years during President Obama’s administration.
“Republicans are obsessed with throwing red meat to their base while cutting funding for SNAP from 42 million Americans—a program that feeds both Democrats and Republicans. Instead of fat-shaming Americans with a new drug deal that doesn’t substantially lower costs, RFK Jr. should get back to work. Americans deserve a Health Secretary who will fight to fully restore funding for SNAP and actually keep us healthy.”
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November 5, 2025
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) — The United States government has officially been shut down over health care for a record-breaking 36 days. It’s the longest shutdown in history and with the future of the Affordable Care Act at risk, 314 Action President Shaughnessy Naughton released the following statement:
“Congressional Republicans have officially shut down the government for the longest period in American history. Instead of extending the ACA tax credit, they chose to take an endless vacation and dodge accountability in Washington—while federal employees continue to work without pay and families who rely on SNAP starve.
“No one should be forced to choose between paying medical bills and rent. But if Republicans refuse to extend ACA subsidies, that’s what will happen. Millions of Americans will see their premiums double or triple, exacerbating the crisis of the uninsured—a problem the Affordable Care Act was created to solve. Working families across the country will be priced out of health insurance, risking an explosion of medical debt for emergency surgeries or routine treatment for chronic conditions. This isn’t leadership—it’s cruelty—and we are not going to let Republicans get away with it.
“Tuesday’s election results confirm that voters are fed up with Republican attacks on health care—which only worsen the affordability crisis. In response, 314 Action is working with a record number of doctors and scientists running for office in 2026 who know how to fix the health care system from the inside out. This is our moment—it’s time for a new kind of leadership and our candidates are ready to step up and fight for the American people and restore health care.”
314 Action is the only national organization working to recruit, train and elect Democratic scientists across all levels of government—from the Senate down to local school boards. The organization is powered by a grassroots community of over six million people supporting scientists and health care professionals who will use science and facts to address the most urgent issues facing our generation.
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November 5, 2025
314 Action Celebrates STEM Sweep in Local and State Races Across the Country
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) — On Tuesday, 100 314 Action-endorsed STEM candidates were elected to local and state offices in New Jersey, Virginia, and across the nation. There are three state legislative races still too close to call in New Jersey and Washington State.
“Science won in New Jersey, Virginia, and across the nation,” said Shaughnessy Naughton, President of 314 Action. “At a time when science and health care are under constant attack, their voices are needed more than ever in our communities. STEM leaders represent the future—a future where our elected officials make evidence-based decisions and work to save health care, protect our environment, and grow our economy.”
Naughton continued, “Change begins at the local level and Americans are hungry for candidates who believe in science. We understand the importance of investing in these races up and down the ballot and building a pipeline of strong candidates who represent our future. With so much at stake in 2026, the election results prove that the path to taking back the House and the Senate, run through our STEM candidates.”
The 314 Action candidates elected to state legislative offices:
In addition, 92 314 Action-endorsed candidates across 18 different states running for local and municipal offices have been elected, with 16 races still too early to call.
314 Action is the only national organization working to elect scientists across all levels of government—from the Senate down to local school boards. The organization is powered by a grassroots community of over six million people supporting scientists, doctors, and STEM professionals who will use science and facts to address our most pressing issues like climate change and health care.
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November 5, 2025
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) — Today, State Representative-Elect Janice Zahn won her election for Washington’s 41st House District. 314 Action President Shaughnessy Naughton released the following statement:
“Congratulations to Janice Zahn on her hard-fought election as State Representative for Washington’s 41st House District. At a time when science and health care are under unprecedented attack, Janice’s victory proves that Washingtonians are looking for leaders who will make decisions based on facts and data. Her victory is a win for science and will set the district on a path to becoming healthier, safer and more affordable. We’re proud to celebrate her success and stand with Janice as she delivers results for Washington’s 41st House District.”
314 Action is the only national organization working to elect scientists across all levels of government—from the Senate down to local school boards. The organization is powered by a grassroots community of over six million people supporting scientists, doctors, and STEM professionals who will use science and facts to address our most pressing issues like climate change and health care.
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November 5, 2025
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) — Last night, Assemblyman Balvir Singh was reelected to New Jersey’s 7th Legislative District. 314 Action President Shaughnessy Naughton released the following statement:
“Congratulations to Balvir Singh on his well-deserved reelection as Assemblyman for New Jersey’s 7th Legislative District. At a time when science and health care are under unprecedented attack, Balvir’s victory proves that New Jerseyans are looking for leaders who will make decisions based on facts and data. His victory is a win for science and will keep the district on a path to becoming healthier, safer and more affordable. We’re proud to celebrate his success and stand with Balvir as he delivers results for New Jersey’s 7th Legislative District.”
314 Action is the only national organization working to elect scientists across all levels of government—from the Senate down to local school boards. The organization is powered by a grassroots community of over six million people supporting scientists, doctors, and STEM professionals who will use science and facts to address our most pressing issues like climate change and health care.
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November 4, 2025
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) — Tonight, State Senator-Elect Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger won her election for Minnesota’s 47th Senate District. 314 Action President Shaughnessy Naughton released the following statement:
“Congratulations to Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger on her hard-fought election as State Senator for Minnesota’s 47th Senate District. At a time when science and health care are under unprecedented attack, Amanda’s victory proves that Minnesotans are looking for leaders who will make decisions based on facts and data. Her victory is a win for science and will set the district on a path to becoming healthier, safer and more affordable. We’re proud to celebrate her success tonight and stand with Amanda as she delivers results for Minnesota’s 47th Senate District.”
314 Action is the only national organization working to elect scientists across all levels of government—from the Senate down to local school boards. The organization is powered by a grassroots community of over six million people supporting scientists, doctors, and STEM professionals who will use science and facts to address our most pressing issues like climate change and health care.
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